Born in Odessa, Ukraine (1905-1962), immigrated to Israel in 1921. After studying art at the Bezalel School, he traveled to Ghent, Belgium where he studied architecture. He designed many public buildings, including the Heichal HaTarbut (the Hall of Culture) building (together with Zeev Rechter) , buildings at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Histadrut Executive Committee building, Beit Hadar Dafna and more . The first winner of the Israel Prize for Architecture (1957).
Karmi is immortalized in a "slot" in the "Showing a place" project - the Pantheon in Holon