Hanif Kara is a renowned structural design engineer and educator with over 40 years of experience. In 2022, he was awarded the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his lifelong contributions to architecture, engineering, and education. He is recipient of Fazlur Khan lifetime achievement award 2022, the London Design medal 2023, the Soane medal 2024 and the British Council for Offices Presidents medal 2024.

As a Co-founder and Design Director of AKT II, an international engineering practice established over 25 years ago, Hanif Kara has been instrumental in cultivating a pioneering “design-led” approach. AKT II, recognized for its interdisciplinary ethos, has earned over 400 design awards, including four RIBA Stirling Prizes (2000, 2012, 2018, and 2021).

Hanif Kara is a Professor in Practice of Architectural Technology at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design (GSD). He is widely published and is currently focussed on design research relating to embodied carbon, the calibration of ancient, modern and new materials in architecture. His academic career includes teaching roles at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, and several European institutions. He has been a scientific review panellist for the National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCR) based at ETH Zurich and the Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at TEDI-London.

His role extends to being a strategic advisor to numerous architectural, governmental, and industry organizations globally, including the UK Design Council’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA), and the National Infrastructure Commission’s (NIC) Design Task Force.

Hanif Kara's work at AKT II places a strong emphasis on sustainability through innovative design, material efficiency, and complex analysis methods. His notable sustainable projects include the Masdar Institute for Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, a master planned “science city” serving as a living prototype for carbon-mitigation technologies, and the Olympic Energy Centres in London, which provided combined cooling, heating, and power for the 2012 Olympics. The Bloomberg headquarters in London and the National Trust Headquarters. Additionally, he contributed to the Google Mountain View campus in California, which features a novel grid-net canopy typology designed to enhance energy efficiency and sustainability. These projects exemplify his commitment and search to integrate sustainable practices in the built environment.

Hanif Kara grew up in Uganda and arrived in the UK in the mid-1970s.