Sarah N. Ahmad is a social infrastructure specialist working to bridge the gaps between equitable urban development, civic innovation, and cultural engagement.

Her work spans diverse geographies and contexts, bridging public space strategy, policy innovation, arts and cultural programming, and community engagement to help municipalities, developers, institutions, and city-builders create socially connected and meaningful places.

Sarah is also a speaker, facilitator, mentor, and strategic collaborator who has contributed to diverse conversations on cities, culture, care, and civic life. Her evolving work critically examines the navigation of urban transition and migration. She brings energy, insight, and thoughtful leadership to public dialogues, collaborative processes, and community-centred projects.

Having lived in six cities across three continents, Sarah is a global citizen currently based between Tkarón:to/Toronto and Lahore/لاہور.

Select Projects

The Pavilion

ART IN PUBLIC SPACE
Role: Art Advisory and Conceptual Delivery
Description: Public Art installation for Jamii, Toronto. Funded by the City of Toronto’s Main Street Innovation Fund and the Government of Canada’s Healthy Communities Initiative.
Location: David Crombie Park Year: 2024
Mudlark

PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SPACE
Role: Creative Consultancy & Concept Research & Strategy
Description: Mudlark was a creative consultancy for Jamii, Toronto. It was an outdoor Shadow Puppet theatre performance depicting the historical evolution of The Esplanade neighborhood through the eyes of a young Mudlark girl.
Location: The Esplanade & Berkeley St. Toronto. Year: 2023
Car-Free Cycling Sundays

CIVIC ADVOCACY
Role: Project conception, mangement, oversight, partnerships and media
Description: In partnership with the United Nations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sarah (as Urban Innovation Pvt. Ltd.) led an officially sponsored, high-profile public space advocacy campaign focused on the reclaimation of public spaces and active mobility.
Location: Islamabad Year: 2021
What We Remember

ART IN PUBLIC SPACE
Role: Contributing Artist
Description: Creative Contribution and Participant in multi-artist outdoor exhibit highlighting the role of memory in creating place. Supported by the Metcalf Foundation. Location: 264 The Esplanade. Year: 2024
The Little Esplanade - Phase 1

PARTICIPATORY COMMUNITY ART
Role: Concept & Delivery
Description: Project coordination and conceptual support for Jamii, Toronto. The Little Esplanade is a community-driven miniature modeling project designed to strengthen social bonds and relationships with the built environment. Location: 264 The Esplanade Year: 2024
Flood Rehabilitation Through Design

CIVIC ADVOCACY AND COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
Role:
Description: A crisis response advocacy project bringing together Architects, Engineers, Urban Planners and the Aid sector to address the devastation of the 2010 Floods across Punjab, Pakistan. Location: Lahore, Pakistan Year: 2010/2011
City Dialogue Series

CIVIC DIALOGUE
Role: Project Management & Coordination
Commissioned by the Urban Unit, Government of Punjab, the City Dialogue series was organised to create civic dialogue on pressing urban issues. Speakers included prominent scholars, local politicians and activists. Location: Quaid-e-Azam Library, Lahore, Pakistan. Year: 2018
Rooted پیوستہ (Paivasta)

ART IN PUBLIC SPACE
Role: Project Coordination and Delivery
Description: Paivasta was/is a socially engaged public art project by artists Matt Kushan and Unum Babar and Glasgow-based creative studio Pidgin Perfect .he project was curated and commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation (LBF) and British Council Pakistan with generous support from Parks & Horticulture Authority (PHA) Lahore. Location: Lawrence Gardens, Lahore. Year: 2016
Lahore Music Meet

CULTURAL PLANNING & EVENT ACTIVATION
Role: Programme Development
Programme Direction and consultancy for inaugural Lahore Music Meet. A first of its kind music festival bringing together musical talent from the grassroots across Pakistan. Location: Lahore, Pakistan Year: 2015
Shadman Market Revitalization

URBAN REVITALIZATION
Role: Project Lead
Proposal developed for Lahore Development Authority
2020
Lahore Literary Festival (LLF)

CULTURAL PLANNING & EVENT SUPPORT
Role: Event-wide logistics, volunteer training and VIP personnel management
Description: The Lahore Literary Festival is the premier free-to-the-public cultural event in Lahore.LLF explores the dialogue and interface between literature and the arts that shape our cultural, social, economic, and political frameworks.
Year: 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
The Caring Urbanist

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
The Caring Urbanist is an ongoing civic storytelling, research, and advisory platform exploring how care shapes the cities we live in — and how cities, in turn, shape our ability to care for one another.
Location: International Year: 2026

Do you or your organisation need support across social infrastructure, cultural strategy, civic engagement, and public life activation?

Work with Sarah

Advising municipalities, developers, cultural institutions, and community organizations on creating socially connected, culturally meaningful, and people-centered urban environments.
Can include:
- Social impact and community insight
- Place identity and belonging strategies
- Cultural and civic engagement advisory
- Community-centred development approaches
- Social wellbeing and public life integration
Designing public-facing experiences, programming frameworks, and cultural activation strategies that strengthen community participation, place attachment, and social vibrancy.
Can include:
- Public realm activation
- Cultural and community programming
- Festival and arts engagement strategy
- Temporary and site-responsive interventions
- Experience and audience engagement design
Facilitating conversations, workshops, and participatory processes that support collaboration, trust-building, collective reflection, and community ownership.
Can include:
- Public consultations
- Community engagement sessions
- Stakeholder dialogue and facilitation
- Artist and civic roundtables
- Moderation, speaking, and convening
Developing research, teaching, and knowledge-sharing initiatives focused on social infrastructure, civic life, cultural urbanism, and emerging forms of belonging in cities.
Can include:
- Urban and cultural research
- Lectures and guest teaching
- Workshops and learning experiences
- Thought leadership and writing
- Research synthesis and strategic insight

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Published Work

Holding The City Gently: Trauma-informed Urbanism in a City of Arrival

An Anthology - Traumed-Informed Practice: Care in Global Contexts

Chapter 5, Collective Healing: Community, Resilience and Rebirth

published by Global Arts in Medicine
2026

Read
Op-Ed: Smoggy Governance

Published in The Nation
2024

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Cycling Strategy Islamabad

Prepared by Urban Innovation Pvt. Ltd. in partnership with Graana, Urban Platform and Islamabad Cycling Association
2020

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Op-Ed: Naya Pakistan Housing Authority

Published in The Nation
2018

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Collaborative Planning, Governance and Resistance: Institutional Provision in Lahore

Pakistan Journal of Urban Affairs
2017

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Op-Ed: The Orange Line That Divides

Published in The Nation
2015

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Op-Ed: Displacing Hope

Published in The News International, Pakistan
2014

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The Space Between

co-authored
Published by openDemocracy
2011

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