About the Aga Khan Award for Architecture
Aga Khan Development Network
 

Background Information

Petronas Office Towers 2004 Cycle
Petronas Office Towers (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
Find out more Introduction
 The Aga Khan Award for Architecture was established in 1977 by His Highness the Aga Khan, the forty-ninth hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, to enhance the understanding and appreciation of Islamic culture as expressed through architecture. Its method is to seek out and recognize examples of architectural excellence, encompassing concerns as varied as contemporary design, social housing, community improvement and development, restoration, reuse, and area conservation, as well as landscaping and environmental issues. Through its efforts, the Award seeks to identify and encourage building concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of societies in which Muslims have a significant presence.

The selection process emphasizes architecture that not only provides for people’s physical, social and economic needs, but that also stimulates and responds to their cultural and spiritual expectations. Particular attention is given to building schemes that use local resources and appropriate technology in an innovative way, and to projects likely to inspire similar efforts elsewhere.

The Award is organized on the basis of a three-year cycle and is governed by a Steering Committee chaired by the Aga Khan. A new committee is constituted each cycle to establish the current eligibility criteria for the projects, to provide thematic direction in response to the priorities and issues that have emerged during the recent past, and to develop plans for the cyclical and long-term future of the Award. The Steering Committee is responsible for the selection of the Master Jury appointed for each Award cycle, and for the programmes of such activities as seminars and field visits, the Award Presentation Ceremony Events, publications and exhibitions.

Prizes totalling up to US$ 500,000 - constituting the largest architectural award in the world - are presented every three years to projects selected by an independent Master Jury. The Award has completed nine cycles of activity since 1977, and documentation has been compiled on over 7,500 building projects located throughout the world. To date, the Master Juries have selected ninety-two projects to receive Awards. The Tenth Award Cycle covers the period from 2005 to 2007.

The Aga Khan Development Network
Founded and guided by His Highness the Aga Khan, the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) brings together a number of development agencies, institutions, and programmes that work primarily in the poorest parts of Asia and Africa. AKDN is an endeavour of the Ismaili Imamat to realise the social conscience of Islam through institutional action. AKDN agencies conduct their programmes without regard to faith, origin or gender.

The Aga Khan Trust for Culture coordinates the Imamat’s cultural activities. Its programmes include the Award for Architecture, the Historic Cities Programme, and the Education and Culture Programme (comprising five major units: the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; www.ArchNet.org; the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia; the Aga Khan Humanities Project; and the Museum Projects).

AKDN agencies operate in social and economic development as well as in the field of culture. The Aga Khan Foundation, the Aga Khan Agency for Microfiance, Aga Khan Heath Services, Aga Khan Education Services, and the Aga Khan Planning and Building Services operate in social development.

The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development seeks to strengthen the role of the private sector in developing countries by supporting private sector initiatives in the development process. The Fund and the Foundation also encourage government policies that foster what the Aga Khan first called an “enabling environment” of favourable legislative and fiscal structures.

Two universities are also part of the Network. The Aga Khan University (AKU) is a major centre for education, training and research. Chartered as Pakistan’s first private international university in 1983, AKU has made significant contributions on a range of development challenges. It has teaching sites in Afghanistan, Kenya, Pakistan, Syria, Tanzania, Uganda and the United Kingdom. The University of Central Asia (UCA), chartered in 2000, is located on three campuses under construction: in Khorog, Tajikistan; Tekeli, Kazakhstan; and Naryn, Kyrgyz Republic. UCA’s mission is to foster economic and social development in the mountain regions of Central Asia. It will offer a Master of Arts degree in mountain development; a Bachelor of Arts programme based on the liberal arts and sciences; and non-degree continuing education courses, which have been in operation since 2002.

While each agency pursues its own mandate, all of them work together within the overarching framework of the Aga Khan Development Network so that their different endeavours can interact and reinforce one another. Their common goal is to help the poor achieve a level of self-reliance whereby they are able to plan their own lives and help those even more needy than themselves.

Full information on the Aga Khan Development Network, Trust for Culture, and Award for Architecture is available on the website.

School in Rudrapur 2007 Cycle
School in Rudrapur (Rudrapur, Bangladesh)
Find out moreAnnouncement of Awards
Ceremonies to honour the winning projects and mark the close of each triennial cycle are held in settings selected for their importance to Islamic architecture: Shalimar Gardens in Lahore (1980), Topkapi Palace in Istanbul (1983), Badi' Palace in Marrakesh (1986), Saladin's Citadel in Cairo (1989), Registan Square in Samarkand (1992), Karaton Surakarta in Solo (1995), the Alhambra in Granada (1998), the Citadel of Aleppo (2001), the Gardens of Emperor Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi (2004), and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur (2007).

A seminar to present the awarded projects to a wider public follows each ceremony and provides a forum for the participants to debate issues of contemporary architecture. A major monograph bringing together descriptions of the winning projects, the Jury deliberations, and essays by both Master Jury and Steering Committee members is published on the occasion of the Award Ceremony.

International and Regional Seminars
To reach out to a wider audience, the Award organizes international and regional seminars during each cycle. International seminars examine the trends and implications of architectural transformations in the Islamic world, while regional seminars explore architecture in Islamic cultures in a specific area. Designed to address developments in the built environments of Muslims, they bring together government officials, architects, academics, planners, social scientists, designers and architectural writers.

Since the Award's inception, 22 seminars have been held in various parts of the world, including Paris, Istanbul, Fez, Jakarta, Amman, Beijing, Dakar, Sana'a, Kuala Lumpur, Cairo, Dhaka, Granada, Malta, Zanzibar, Yogyakarta, Almaty, Baku, Beirut, Moscow, Yazd, Tehran and Kuwait.