Saima Iqbal is Principal Conservation Architect working as full-time consultant at Indian National Trust for
Art and Cultural Heritage, Kashmir Chapter. Trained as an architect, her love for traditional building craft
made her specialise in historic conservation. With over 12 years of experience of working on various
complex and diverse conservation projects, Saima has helped initiate the restoration the 17th century
Mughal Gardens of Kashmir, particularly the Shalimar Bagh and worked on several exhaustive research and
documentation projects as well as decorative crafts of Kashmir.
She has championed several voluntary heritage-led projects in culturally rich, remote areas of India. She is
currently focussing on bringing attention to disaster resilience of cultural heritage of Kashmir and
establishing partnerships with INGOs for intellectual exchange. She has worked on projects funded by the
Prince Clause, the German Embassy and more recently the Aliph Foundation. In 2020, her project – the
restoration of Amar Singh College won a UNESCO Asia Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation.
Saima has been one of the most influential people in establishing protection, advocacy and conservation of
cultural heritage in the north Indian region of Jammu and Kashmir and has received several awards such as
35-under-35 and Young Indian Leader Award for her outstanding professional work.
She is an avid traveller and loves filling her travel journal, camera and Instagram with memories of people,
places, food, culture and architecture.