The Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) is an architectural prize established by Aga Khan IV in 1977. It aims to identify and reward architectural concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of Muslim societies in the fields of contemporary design, social housing, community development and improvement, restoration, reuse and area conservation, as well as landscape design and improvement of the environment.
The award is associated with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).
Prize
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture is presented in three-year cycles and has a monetary prize totalling US$1 million that is shared by multiple winning projects. It recognizes projects, teams, and stakeholders in addition to buildings and people.
Chairman's Award
The Chairman's Award is given in honour of accomplishments that fall outside the mandate of the Master Jury. It recognises lifetime achievements of individuals and has been presented four times: in 1980 to Egyptian architect and urban planner Hassan Fathy, in 1986 to Iraqi architect and educator Rifat Chadirji, in 2001 to Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, and in 2010 to historian of Islamic art and architecture Oleg Grabar.
History
Prince Karim Aga Khan IV established the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1977. At the time, very few architectural prizes of international scope existed. It has been noted that the award emerged from "the Aga Khan's sadness at the state of architecture in the Islamic world of the 1970s", and his conviction of the importance that the built environment holds in shaping a society's quality of life.
Twenty years earlier, upon inheriting the seat of Imamat of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, the Aga Khan had become responsible for the wellbeing of the Ismaili community, which mostly live in the developing countries of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He was concerned at the absence of design thinking that could respond to specific challenges in those parts of the world.
A relentless push for development had led to cheap copies of foreign architectural designs that held no connection or respect for the places where they were being built. The Aga Khan also worried about the rapid disappearance of centuries of distinctive architectural tradition that embodied a continuity of Islamic values, resulting in an absence of "architecture that could speak to and about the Muslim world".
These problems were most acutely felt during the planning of the Aga Khan University and teaching hospital in Karachi. Questions raised in this process – including the need for a contemporary visual language for the Islamic built environment, as well as for architects trained in modern technologies and sensitive to the diversity, values and dignity of Muslim culture – would inform the creation of the Award.
Reviving creativity
By the 1970s, the decline of the built environment of Muslim societies and loss of cultural identity had become apparent to others as well. From the outset the Aga Khan recruited a number of people to help define the award. Among the first were Oleg Grabar a professor at the Harvard Department of Fine Arts, William Porter then Dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, architectural historian Renata Holod, and Pakistani architect Hasan Udhin Khan. They were joined by others, including Nader Ardalan, Hugh Casson, Charles Correa, and Hassan Fathy.
Members of the team travelled widely – from Morocco to Indonesia. They debated the cultural role of architecture, the parameters of the award and how to structure its processes. The award was shaped by consultations held with chambers of architects and ministries of urbanism and culture. The first Aga Khan Award for Architecture Seminar was held during April 1978 in Aiglemont, Gouvieux, France. Subsequent seminars have been held in Istanbul, Jakarta, Fez, Amman, Beijing, Dakar, Sana'a, Cairo, Granada and elsewhere.
In seeking to define what "Islamic architecture" meant, it became apparent that no singular definition was to be found. Instead, the seminars brought to light the diversity of what constituted Islamic architecture. This was recognized as a strength and a dormant source of creativity that the Award would seek to revive.
Knowledge from architecture
Unlike conventional prizes that applaud the accomplishments of individual architects, the Aga Khan Award selects projects that improve the quality of life and recognizes all those who have a role in realizing them. This includes clients, builders, artisans and decision makers. Architecture is viewed as a collaborative endeavour in which architects play a role.