Worlds largest architectural award

A diverse group of projects from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe have been honoured with the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture for 2007. This year, nine projects were recognised for architectural excellence in places where Muslims live, reports Achal Narayanan.

Founded in 1977, the Aga Khan Award marked its 30th anniversary this year and the completion of the 10th cycle of the programme. The award has a triennial prize fund of US $500.000, making it the world’s largest architectural award.

During the current cycle of the award, 343 projects were presented for consideration and twenty-seven were reviewed on site by international experts. An independent master jury selected nine award recipients on the basis of the highest standards of architectural excellence.

At a ceremony held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on September 4, the Aga Khan— spiritual leader of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims—personally announced the winners of this year’s award. Nine projects were selected by the master jury.

With its high-tech architecture, the University of Technology Petronas in Perak state, Malaysia, provides an inspiring structure for progressive education in a rapidly developing nation, according to the master jury. The award was presented to the architects—Foster and Partners (UK) and GDP Architects, Malaysia, and the Petronas Corporation (the Petronas Twin Towers in the commercial district of Kuala Lumpur, won an award in the 2004 cycle).

The rehabilitation of the walled city of Nicosia, Cyprus, is a collaborative and sustained effort by the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities to reverse the city’s physical and economic decline, using architectural restoration and reuse as the catalyst for improvement of the quality of life on both sides of this divided city. Representatives of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities share the award with the Nicosia Master Plan team.

The Samir Kassir Square in Beirut is a serene urban space that skillfully handles the conditions and infrastructure of its location in a city that has undergone rapid redevelopment, says the master jury. The award has gone to Vladimir Djurovic, the pre-eminent landscape architect working in Lebanon.

The rehabilitation of the city of Shibam in Yemen is part of a project that focusses on the preservation of this unique place as a living community, with architectural restoration integrated into the creation of new economic and social structures. The award recipients are the Yemeni government and its cultural agencies, German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the community of Shibam.

Koudougou’s Central Market in Burkina Faso (West Africa) introduces simple improvements to a traditional material—stabilised earth—to create an important space for civic exchange and economic opportunity, helping enhance and strengthen a mid-sized town in the country. The award will be shared by the Koudougou Municipality, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the architects, Laurent Sechaud and Pierre Jequier.

Revival of lost techniques

The restoration of the Amiriya Complex in Rada, Yemen, saw the revival of lost techniques of building and ornamentation. The award goes to the project directors, renowned Iraqi archaeologist and restorer Selma AI-Radi and her Yemeni counterpart, Yahya AI-Nasiri.

The Moulmein Rise Residential Tower in Singapore uses innovative techniques that combine new principles for tropical design and improvements for high-rise living. Wong Mun Summ and Richard Hassell, partners at the Singapore firm WOHA Architects, receive the award.

The guiding principle in the construction of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was a respect for place while addressing the functional requirements of a working embassy, resulting in a contemporary structure that fully engages its local environment. The Dutch architects Dick van Gameren and Bjarne Mastenbroek receive the award, together with the Ethiopian architects at the firm ABBA Architects.

Hand-built in four months by the local community and volunteer architects from Germany and Austria, the Rudrapur School in Dinajpur, north Bangladesh, made use of locally available materials (such as loam, straw and bamboo) to create a new model for school construction that is simple and beautiful. The architects Anna Heringer and Eike Roswag share the award with the craftsmen and volunteers who assisted in the building, and Dipshikha, the Bangladeshi NGO for sustainable development.

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture was established in 1977. It recognises examples of architectural excellence in all the places where Muslims live, in the fields of contemporary design, social housing, community improvement and development, reuse and area conservation, as well as landscape design and improvement of the environment.

The award is governed by a steering committee chaired by the Aga Khan. An independent master jury appointed by the steering committee for each three-year award cycle selects the awards. The members of both, the steering committee and the master jury are eminent personalities drawn from diverse fields, including art and architecture.

A monograph on the 2007 Award is being published by I B Tauris & Co. The book, Intervention Architecture: Building for Change, includes concise descriptions and illustrations of the nine winning projects, an introductory essay by Homi K Bhabha (a Professor at Harvard University and a member of the master jury), and contributions from several others.

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture is part of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which is engaged in a wide range of activities aimed at the preservation and promotion of the material and spiritual heritage of Muslim societies. As the cultural agency of the Aga Khan Development Network, the Trust leverages cultural heritage as a means of supporting and catalysing development.

For more details contact: Aga Khan Award for Architecture, PO Box 2049, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland. E-mail: [email protected]. Website: www.akdn.org/architecture