Twenty unique projects shortlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture has announced its shortlist for the 2020–22 award cycle. A total of 20 projects from 16 different countries were selected out of 463 nominations to vie for the $1 million prize given triennially to building concepts that address the needs of communities with significant Muslim populations worldwide.

Since being established in 1977, the Award has gone on to honor 121 projects with nearly another 10,000 being documented in its archive. It is one of the biggest monetary awards in the architectural field and this year will be given to one of many deserving candidates selected from a field that includes a prototype from a team affiliated with the ETH Zurich, a renovation of Oscar Niemeyer’s former guest house in Tripoli, a new Palestinian courthouse, and a thoughtful ecumenical cemetery design in Tunisia.

Representations of the shortlisted entries will be on display in an exhibition in King’s Cross, London, from today until the 30th of June to coincide with the London Architecture Festival. The nine-member jury, which includes Amale Andraos, Nader Tehrani, and 2022 Pritzker winner Diébédo Francis Kéré, will meet again this summer for its selective review process before naming a winner. 

Scroll down to see each shortlisted design.

Rehabilitation of Manama Post Office | Manama, Bahrain
Architect: Studio Anne Holtrop

Community Spaces in Rohingya Refugee Response | Teknaf, Bangladesh
Architects: Rizvi Hassan, Khwaja Fatmi, Saad Ben Mostafa

Urban River Spaces | Jhenaidah, Bangladesh
Architects: Co.Creation.Architects / Khondaker Hasibul Kabir, Suhailey Farzana

Outros Bairros Rehabilitation Programme | Mindelo, Cape Verde
Architect: OUTROS BAIRROS / Nuno Flores

Lilavati Lalbhai Library at CEPT University | Ahmedabad, India
Architect: RMA architects / Rahul Mehrotra

Blimbingsari Airport, Banyuwangi | Indonesia
Architect: andramatin

Expandable House | Batam, Indonesia
Architects: ETH Zurich / Stephen Cairns with Miya Irawati, Azwan Aziz, Dioguna Putra, and Sumiadi Rahman

Aban House | Isfahan, Iran
Image: USE Studio / Mohammad Arab, Mina Moeineddini

Argo Contemporary Art Museum & Cultural Centre | Tehran, Iran
Architect: ASA North / Ahmadreza Schricke

Jadgal Elementary School | Seyyed Bar, Iran
Architect: DAAZ Office / Arash Aliabadi

Renovation of Niemeyer Guest House | Tripoli, Lebanon
Architects: East Architecture Studio / Nicolas Fayad, Charles Kettaneh

Wafra Wind Tower | Kuwait City, Kuwait
Architects: AGi Architects / Joaquín Pérez-Goicoechea, Nasser B. Abulhasan

Issy Valley Improvement | Ait Mansour, Morocco
Architect: Salima Naji

Niamey 2000 | Niamey, Niger
Architect: united4design / Yasaman Esmaili, Elizabeth Golden, Mariam Kamara, Philip Straeter

Tulkarm Courthouse | Tulkarm, Palestine
Architect: AAU Anastas

CEM Kamanar Secondary School | Thionck Essyl, Senegal
Architect: Dawoffice

Lanka Learning Centre | Parangiyamadu, Sri Lanka
Architects: feat.collective / Noemi Thiele, Felix Lupatsch, Valentin Ott and Felix Yaparsidi

Le Jardin d'Afrique | Zarzis, Tunisia
Architect: Rachid Koraïchi

Rehabilitation of Tarsus Old Ginnery | Tarsus, Turkey
Architect: Sayka Construction Architecture Engineering Consultancy

Flying Saucer Rehabilitation | Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Architects: SpaceContinuum Design Studio / Mona El Mousfy