On 22 September 2022, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) announced the six winners of the award: Argo Contemporary Art Museum & Cultural Centre; Banyuwangi International Airport; Community Spaces in Rohingya Refugee Response; Kamanar Secondary School; Renovation of Niemeyer Guest House and Urban River Spaces.
The award was established in 1977 by the current Imam of Nizari Ismailis Aga Khan to recognise architectural works and projects that greatly improve public life in Muslim societies accross the globe. A Steering Committee, comprising renowned personalities Sheikha Mai Bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, Emre Arolat, Meisa Batayneh, Sir David Chipperfield, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Nasser Rabbat, Marina Tabassum and Sarah M Whiting, governs the highly regarded award which is in its 15th award cycle.
From a pool of 463 projects nominated for the award, a Master Jury made up of Anne Lacaton, Francis Kéré, Nader Tehrani, Nada Al Hassan, Kader Attia, Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, Lina Ghotmeh, Professor Sibel Bozdoğan and Amale Andraos shortlisted 20 exceptional projects from 16 countries, and ultimately chose six winners.
Francis Kéré, one of the members of the Master Jury, is a Design Indaba alumnus, 2022 Pritzker Laureate and an AKAA laureate, who received the award in 2004 for his elementary school in Gando, Burkina Faso.
The six winning projects addressed the needs of communities, cultures and social issues in the field of contemporary design, social housing, community improvement and landscape design, amongst others. Sharing the prize money of $1 million (one of the largest in the architecture industry) are two projects from Bangladesh and one from Indonesia, Iran, Lebanon, and Senegal respectively.
One of the winning projects, Community Spaces in Rohingya Refugee Response in Bangladesh by Rizvi Hassan, Khwaja Fatmi and Saad Ben Mostafa, is a particular example of how architecture helps communities regain identities and find safety in new lands. Over and above providing housing for Rohingyas fleeing violence in Myanmar, Community Spaces also creates a safe space that feels familiar and helps preserve cultural heritage.
Find out more about all the winning projects here: https://inda.ba/3TadUPa.
Read more:
Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2013.
On why design cannot be divorced from economic development in Africa.
Credits: Aga Khan Award for Architecture
