Muslim architecture: Fit for a King

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture shortlists 20 works in places with significant Muslim populations.

The grand prize! It’s time for the stars of architecture to walk the runway. Peter Zumthor was crowned The Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2009 and was singled out by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2013. Renzo Piano should be proud of his special mention at the French Prix d’architecture de l’Équerre d’argent (Silver T-square Prize) in 2012. In the meantime, the French Global Awards is looking for its laureates. And last but not least, once every three years, the Aga Khan Development Network offers the world another point of view.

From skyscrapers to vernacular architecture, from the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban to the Indonesians Rumah Asuh and Yori Antar... without a doubt the Aga Khan award for architecture offers the widest range imaginable. And on April 30 it announced its shortlist of 20 projects for this year. The current prize fund totals one million dollars and is presented to projects selected by an independent master jury. The final announcement will be made in the Autumn.



What is different about the award, founded in 1977, is that it tries to “identify and encourage building concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of societies in which Muslims have a significant presence”. And so, the jury can unanimously award the rehabilitation of a fort, the revitalisation of a downtown area or even a bridge. As the director of the award, Farrokh Derakhshani, puts it, the choices of 2013 mark the importance of “the impact of buildings and public spaces on the quality of life”.

There is also, of course, the strong ambition to show the vitality of some countries that do not come to the media’s attentions.



And so, one of the projects to be shortlisted this year, was a residential building in Mahallat, 200km south-east from Tehran. “The majority of Mahallat’s economy is engaged in the business of cutting and treating stone, over half of which is discarded due to inefficiencies in stone-cutting technology,” says a note on the AKDN website. “This project turns the inefficiency to economic and environmental advantage by reusing leftover stones for both exterior and some interior walls, and has led to the increasing adoption of stone recycling by local builders.” The project has thus set a real example for local builders.



In Indonesia, it was a project of thatched conical houses in ‘worok’ wood and bamboo that drew the attention of the jury. “A group of young Indonesian architects in the habit of touring a part of Indonesia each year arrived to find four of the last surviving examples of these houses, two of which were in need of renovation,” notes the awards committee. But the building skills, having traditionally been handed down, from generation to generation, had faded from memory. “The architects initiated and facilitated a community-led revival of traditional techniques, enabling all the original houses to be rebuilt.” The intention of renewing the ancient ‘savoir faire’ is certainly a noble one

Other projects are strongly more political; among these is the reconstruction of a refugee camp hosting 27,000 people built in Tripoli, Lebanon, in 1948, which “was 97% destroyed during the war in 2007”. And so is the building of a girls-only school in Herat, Afghanistan, at the Iranian-Turkish border.

The Museum of Paper museum in Gaoligong, China, offers another occasion for the foundation to remember that the region is “an area of significant Muslim presence”. A message doubtlessly addressed to the authorities in Beijing.

Finally a school in Kigali, Rwanda, has been shortlisted and that too a choice for a country that is mainly Catholic and Protestant, unlike its neighbours.

Twenty projects, known and unknown names, all different from one another. This list of running works is a snapshot of the architectural scene and of the world as it is.

This piece appeared in Le Courrier De L’architecte on May 29. The original headline was ‘Aga Khan, La Politique Et Son Prix’.

The translation has been edited for clarity.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, June 16^th, 2013.

Like Express Tribune Magazine on Facebook, follow @ETribuneMag on Twitter to stay informed and join the conversation.