Bio
info@sahrahersi.net
@Sahra_Hersi
Sahra Hersi is an artist and designer with a background in architecture. Her practice spans public installations, objects, print, and community workshops, focusing on how people and places shape one another.
Her process begins on the ground. She spends time getting to know a space through conversations with local communities, archival research, and a close look at the surrounding environment. Rather than bringing a fixed blueprint, she lets each project emerge organically from what she uncovers along the way. In recent work, this has naturally grown to include ecological elements, making space for plant life and local habitats to sit alongside community making.
Ultimately, Sahra creates practical spaces and objects that invite people to gather, sit, and interact with their everyday surroundings and each other in new ways.
Select Clients
Arts Catalyst
Cement Fields
Company Drinks
Concéntrico
Design Museum
London Legacy Development Corporation
Mountford Growing Community
Newham Council
Peer Gallery
British Council
Redbridge Council
SPACE Studios
Studio Voltaire
TACO!
The Mosaic Rooms
The Women's Museum
UP Projects
V&A East
V&A South Kensington
Waltham Forest Council
Wellcome Collection
Press Wallpaper*, "See, touch and play your way around Concéntrico 2026, where architecture engages all the senses," June 202
Voices Centre Stage: an interview with artist Sahra Hersi, British Council Spain, May 2026
STIRworld, "Sahra Hersi on the charms and challenges of participatory public design," May 2026
ACV Magazine, Issue 03, "INBETWEEN," 2026
V&A Magazine, "No Place Like Home," Issue 56, Winter 2021
Exhibitions
Touch Earth (group exhibition)
Curated by THING, Architecture Foundation, London
2026
A Tapestry for Anglesey Future Observatory: Tools for Transition (group exhibition) Curated by Future Observatory, Design Museum, London 2025 to 2026
Sahra Hersi Selects V&A East Museum, London, 2026
Home Making Arts Catalyst, Sheffield, 2025
Tender Women Women's Museum, London, 2025
Earth, Memory, and the Spaces We Inhabit (group exhibition) Presented by Black Females in Architecture (BFA), part of London Festival of Architecture NOW Gallery, London, 2025
Select Talks Know How Lab 4: My Library is for Everyone, case study talk with Dima Karout and Andreas Plemmenos, BUDDIES, The Europe Challenge, European Cultural Foundation, online, 2026
Translating Research, panel with Marwa El Mubark and Miriam Mallalieu, chaired by Abbie Adams, Tools for Transition Research Conference, Future Observatory at the Design Museum, 2026
The Architecture of Belonging: In-Between, panel with Jim Stephenson, Adam Kaasa and Manijeh Verghese, chaired by Samta Nadeem, STIR x Roca Gallery London, in partnership with the London Festival of Architecture, 2026
In conversation with Javier Peña Ibañez on Concéntrico, Instituto Cervantes London, London Design Festival, 2025
Design Discussion talks series, Design London Shoreditch (House of ICON), London Design Festival, 2025
A Right to Feel Safe: Amplifying the Voices of Women, Girls and LGBTQI+ Communities in Public Space, UP Projects (online), 2025
Designing for Community Resilience, panel with Rose Gibbs, Arman Nouri and Neba Sere, Global Design Forum, London Design Festival, V&A, 2024
Collaborative Models, panel discussion and workshop, Architectural Association, 2024
Radical Publications, Art Chats in response to Rasheed Araeen: Zero to Infinity, with Rose Nordin, hosted by Amrita Dhallu, Tate Modern Lates, 2024
Lessons from Failure, Deptford X. An artist talk on professional failure and social practice, for people interested in art in the public realm, 2020
Culinary Cultures: Cooking in a Hackney Estate, panel with Fozia Ismail, Jojo Tulloh and Dr Mukta Das, chaired by Rose Gibbs, Tate Modern, 2019
EducationMA Architecture, Royal College of Art, 2014 to 2017
BA Architecture, London Metropolitan University, 2007 to 2011
Art and Design Foundation, Newham College, 2006 to 2007
Teaching
Lecturer, BA (Hons) Design, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2020 - Present
Annual guest lecture on professional practice, Architecture MSci, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, 2020 to present
Lecturer, BA (Hons) Graphic Design, University for the Creative Arts, 2022-2023
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