Aga Khan Award 2010 announced
In total, 401 projects were put forward for the architecture prize, 19 of which were then shortlisted. The decision on winners and positions was taken by a nine-person jury which included Jean Nouvel and sculptor Anish Kapoor.
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture was established in 1977 by Karim Aga Khan IV, the spiritual head of the Ismailis, and has been bestowed every three years since then. To date, 105 projects have been recognised, including construction projects of all sizes from a one-family house up to large-scale infrastructure projects. The most important selection criterion is simply that the work influences its surroundings in a positive way.
The documentation on this year’s Aga Khan Award is due to be issued by Lars Müller Publishers. It contains, among others, contributions by Farshid Moussavi (Foreign Office Architects), Mohsen Mostafavi (Harvard Graduate School of Design) and Hanif Kara (Adams Kara Taylor).
The five winners of the Aga Khan Award 2010 – the most important architectural prize in the Muslim world – were announced in Doha recently. They include two European projects.
The Aga Khan Award is not only one of the most highly endowed architectural prizes in the world, but also among those with the most significant social criteria. By this token, previous winners include not only projects by Jean Nouvel (Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris), Norman Foster, Cesar Pelli and Ricardo Legorreta, but also school buildings in Burkino Faso and Bangladesh, the restoration of historic city districts in North Africa or the Grameen Bank Housing Programme in Bangladesh, for example.
Social sustainability also plays a primary role in almost all the winning projects for 2010. The jury selected the following five for the Aga Khan Award:
Wadi Hanifa Wetlands, Riyadh, Saudi-Arabia
Planning: Moriyama & Teshima Planners Limited & Buro Happold Revitalisation of the Recent Heritage of Tunis, Tunisia
Architect: Association de Sauvegarde de la Médina de Tunis Madinat al Zahra Museum, Cordoba, Spain
Architect: Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos Ipekyol Textile Factory, Edirne, Turkey
Architect: EAA - Emre Arolat Architects Bridge School, Xiashi, Fujian, China
Architect: Li Xiaodong Atelier
Planning: Moriyama & Teshima Planners Limited & Buro Happold Revitalisation of the Recent Heritage of Tunis, Tunisia
Architect: Association de Sauvegarde de la Médina de Tunis Madinat al Zahra Museum, Cordoba, Spain
Architect: Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos Ipekyol Textile Factory, Edirne, Turkey
Architect: EAA - Emre Arolat Architects Bridge School, Xiashi, Fujian, China
Architect: Li Xiaodong Atelier
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