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Sunday, 9 September 2007 | Levent OZLER
Nine Projects Receive 2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture
His Highness the Aga Khan announced the nine recipients of the 2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Founded in 1977, the Award marked its 30th anniversary this year, and the completion of the 10th cycle of the programme.
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture has a triennial prize fund of US$ 500,000, making it the world's largest architectural award. The rigor of its nomination and selection process has also made it, in the eyes of many observers, the world's most important architectural prize. Awarded projects have ranged from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur to a primary school in Bangladesh.
"The essence of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture is to examine, analyse, understand, and try to influence the dynamic of physical change in Islamic societies," His Highness the Aga Khan has remarked. "Our attempt and aspiration is to try to have the humility, but also the competence, to understand what is happening and to seek to influence it so that future generations can live in a better environment."
During the current cycle of the Award, 343 projects were presented for consideration, and 27 were reviewed on site by international experts. An independent Master Jury selected nine Award recipients that are notable for having attained the highest standards of architectural excellence while reflecting the values of their specific environments.
The nine projects selected by the 2007 Award Master Jury are:
Samir Kassir Square, Beirut, Lebanon
Rehabilitation of the City of Shibam, Yemen
Central Market, Koudougou, Burkina Faso
University of Technology Petronas, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Malaysia
Restoration of the Amiriya Complex, Rada, Yemen
Moulmein Rise Residential Tower, Singapore
Royal Netherlands Embassy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Rehabilitation of the Walled City, Nicosia, Cyprus
School in Rudrapur, Dinajpur, Bangladesh
With its emblematic high-tech architecture, the University of Technology Petronas provides an inspiring structure for progressive education in this rapidly developing nation. The Award will be presented to the architects, Foster + Partners and GDP Architects, and the Petronas Corporation (the Petronas Towers won an Award in the 2004 cycle).
In 1979, the representatives of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities held a historic meeting under United Nations auspices to create a master plan for the Rehabilitation of the Walled City of Nicosia. A collaborative and sustained effort, the project has been successful in reversing the city's physical and economic decline, using architectural restoration and reuse as the catalyst for improvement to the quality of life on both sides of this divided city. The representatives of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities will share the Award with the Nicosia Master Plan team.
The Samir Kassir Square is a restrained and serene urban public space that skilfully handles the conditions and infrastructure of its location in a city that has undergone rapid redevelopment. The Award will go to Vladimir Djurovic, the pre-eminent landscape architect working in Lebanon today.
The Rehabilitation of the City of Shibam is part of a project that focuses 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, the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the community of Shibam.
Koudougou's Central Market 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 Burkina Faso. The Award will be shared by the Koudougou Municipality, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the principal architect, Laurent Séchaud.
With its reliance on local knowledge and experience, the Restoration of the Amiriya Complex in Yemen saw the revival of lost techniques of building and ornamentation. The project represents a milestone in the protection of cultural heritage in Yemen. The Award will be presented to the project directors, renowned Iraqi archaeologist and restorer Selma Al-Radi and her Yemeni counterpart, Yahya Al-Nasiri.
Within the constraints of a developer-driven brief, the Moulmein Rise Residential Tower uses innovative techniques and detailing 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 will receive the Award.
The guiding principle in the construction of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Addis Ababa 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 will 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 School in Rudrapur, Bangladesh, makes use of easily available local materials to create a new model for school construction that is beautiful, simple and humane. The architects Anna Heringer and Eike Roswag will share the Award with the craftsmen and volunteers who assisted in the building, and the Bangladeshi NGO for sustainable rural development, Dipshikha.
The 2007 Master Jury placed an emphasis on the meaningful collaborations and exchange of ideas - between architects, craftsmen, governments, international development agencies, clients and users - that were a defining feature of the winning projects (please see Statement of the Master Jury).
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture was established by the Aga Khan in 1977 to identify and encourage building concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of Muslim societies. The Award recognises examples of architectural excellence in all the places where Muslims live, in the fields of contemporary design, social housing, community improvement and development, historic preservation, reuse and area conservation, as well as landscape design and improvement of the environment.
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