Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2007

A diverse group of projects from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe have been honored with the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture for 2007. This year, nine projects were recognized for architectural excellence in places where Muslims live.

The School in Rudrapur, Bangladesh, exemplifies the Aga Khan Award's emphasis on projects that use local resources and appropriate technology in an innovative way, and that are likely to inspire similar efforts elsewhere. Traditional methods and materials were adapted for the project and combined with new techniques.

The two-story village primary school, run by the Bangladeshi non-governmental organization Dipshikha, was constructed by hand in four months out of materials such as loam, straw, bamboo, and nylon lashing. Two architects from Austria and Germany, Anna Heringer and Eike Roswag, engaged local craftsmen in the project, helping them to refine processes and learn new techniques that they might then be able to apply to other local projects, such as housing.

The Central Market in Koudougou , Burkina Faso, also draws on a traditional local building material � compressed earth � taking advantage of its appropriateness for the climate. Earth blocks were formed into arches, vaults, and domes, creating dramatic spaces to be the backdrop for everyday commercial and social exchanges.

The local community was engaged in the processes of site selection, design, and construction. The building of a one-to-one prototype of a typical retail space provided an opportunity to train local masons and also facilitated discourse about design and construction. This is the third such market constructed under the direction of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, with the Burkina Faso government's Programme de D�veloppement des Villes Moyennes, a program focused on mid-sized cities.

Three restoration projects were among the winners of this year's award. All go beyond the immediate benefit of preserving individual works of historic architecture for the edification of current and future generations. The restorations were also a means to other ends, such as community development.

Two of the project sites are in Yemen: the Amiriya complex in Rada and the city of Shibam. The Amiriya Complex was built in the early 1500s by the last ruler of Yemen's Tahirid dynasty. By the early 1980s, the structure had deteriorated significantly. But conventional restoration techniques would have been costly to employ, so the project director, Iraqi archaeologist Dr. Selma Al-Radi, initiated a restoration project that incorporated traditional construction materials and methods and relied on local craftsmen.

Over the 22-year course of the project, 500 craftsmen and artisans were trained and employed. Lost techniques were revived, including the repair of elaborate carved stucco work and the manufacture of quhad, a smooth, waterproof plaster that is prominent in Yemeni architecture. The project became a catalyst for additional restoration and conservation projects in Yemen, and many of the craftsmen involved have gone on to work on other such projects, including the Al-Abbas Mosque, a winner of the 2004 Aga Khan Award.

In the ancient Yemeni city of Shibam, rehabilitation has been driven by the opportunity to improve the city's economic vitality and to stem depopulation. Shibam's wall encloses a cluster of tightly packed high-rise buildings of mud brick. A joint initiative by the German and Yemeni governments and the local community has provided technical and financial support for the renovation of almost 200 houses � nearly half the housing stock. New community-based organizations are also training local craftsmen, offering literacy classes and skills training for women, and reviving agriculture in the surrounding area using an old canal-and-spate irrigation system.

"Shibam has eluded imminent obsolescence under the amnesiac pressures of globalisation," said the jury, "growing into a platform for the reinvention of the vernacular high-rise in 21st-century conditions." The jury applauded the Shibam Urban Development Project for approaching the city as "a living community rather than a historical artefact frozen in time." And, in fact, a new phase of the project is still ongoing.

Divided City Comes Together

A remarkable example of a successful collaborative rehabilitation project comes from an unlikely place: the divided city of Nicosia, Cyprus. Since 1979, representatives of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities have worked together to preserve the cultural and architectural legacy of the historic Walled City in Nicosia.

The Nicosia Master Plan includes works projects in both parts of the city, and has used the shared space of a historic urban core to foster positive coexistence. The restored buildings have drawn new residents, tourists, economic activity, and private investment. Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots continue to work together on the team for this ongoing project.

The University of Technology Petronas in Bandar Seri Iskandar, Malaysia, demonstrates the use of a performance-based approach that also preserves the natural topography of its hilly, forested site. Within the space defined by a series of knolls, a dramatic star-shaped arcade dominates the site plan, connecting buildings along its curving path and providing a shaded space for circulation and casual social interaction.

The jury commended the project, by Foster + Partners, the London-based firm of Norman Foster, and GDP Architects Sdn Bhd of Kuala Lumpur, for its "meticulous detail, rigour and persistence," and found it to be "instructive, aesthetically satisfying and technologically novel."

The Aga Khan Award also recognized another contemporary project in the tropics: Moulmein Rise Residential Tower in Singapore. Singapore-based WOHA adapted low-energy climate-control strategies from vernacular architecture for use in the 28-story building. Through orientation, perforation, and the relationships of different volumes, the design optimizes air circulation. The strategy incorporates a modern reinterpretation of the traditional monsoon window, a horizontal opening that allows breeze in while keeping rain out.

The design allows occupants to rearrange overhangs, windows, and screens, adding variety to the facade as well as individuality to the dwellings. The jury praised the project for avoiding "market-approved clich�s" and offering "an alternative that takes account of climate, spatial relations, site restrictions, daily living patterns and profit requirements."

Dutch architects Dick van Gameren and Bjarne Mastenbroek designed a cave-like embassy for the Netherlands on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The main building of the Royal Netherlands Embassy, located in a eucalyptus grove, is a long horizontal volume composed uniformly of concrete pigmented with red-ochre to resemble the local soil, echoing Ethiopian structures of rock.

The design incorporates substantial insulation and natural ventilation to reduce reliance on mechanical climate-control systems. The architects also sought to preserve the topography of the site and to minimize disturbance to vegetation and wildlife. The massif architecture was recognized by the jury as being a form common to many people around the world, from the indigenous tribes of Ethiopia to modern Muslims and Christians.

This year's award recognized one project in the field of landscape design: Samir Kassir Square in Beirut, Lebanon. Located in downtown Beirut, the Square centers on two historic ficus trees. A rectangular timber deck encircles the trees, which are reflected in a pool between the trees and the nearby roadway. A long stone bench lines the western side of the pool, and the Square's border is defined by a ground cover of water-conserving dwarf Natal plum.

The restrained design exemplifies the work of its designer, local firm Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture. "The insistence of showing only what is essential � and nothing else," said the jury, "is what makes this particular work excel." Through economy of elements, it creates a contemplative haven in a busy urban center.

Source: http://www.architectureweek.com/