On 28 November 2004, at a ceremony held in India at the historical Agra Fort, His Highness the Aga Khan announced the seven recipients of the 2004 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. 2004 marks the completion of the ninth cycle of the programme, which has a triennial prize fund of US$ 500,000, the world’s largest architectural award.
During the current cycle of the Award, 378 projects were presented for consideration, and twenty-three were reviewed on site by outside experts. An independent Master Jury selected seven Award recipients that are notable for having attained the highest international standards of architectural excellence while reflecting the values of the primarily Muslim societies the projects are intended to serve.

The seven projects selected by the 2004 Award Master Jury are:
Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt
Primary School, Gando, Burkina Faso
Sandbag Shelter Prototypes, various locations
Restoration of Al-Abbas Mosque, Asnaf, Yemen
Old City of Jerusalem Revitalization Programme, Jerusalem
B2 House, Ayvacık, Turkey
Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Two of the projects – Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt and the Petronas Towers in
Malaysia – are the results of important international architectural competitions for high profile landmark buildings.
A third project – the Sandbag Shelter Prototypes– is an experiment for self-built housing that employs earth-filled sandbags stacked atop each other to form domed and vaulted spaces.
The provision of housing is an important aspect of the Old City of Jerusalem Revitalization
Programme that also includes components for the restoration of historic monuments and for the creation of public and community facilities, schools and playgrounds.
The Primary School in Gando, Burkina Faso, goes far beyond its educational programme and
exemplifies highest-calibre architectural design employing locally available materials and techniques, training, and community participation and empowerment.
B2 House, located in a small village on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, extends architectural design to a poetic level, establishing dialogue between nature and building, inside and outside, and public and private.
The Restoration of Al-Abbas Mosque in Yemen represents attainment of the highest standards of restoration and conservation while, at the same time, investigating the nature and contemporary importance of a sacred site.
Reinforcing the architectural excellence of the seven winning projects is the written statement of the Master Jury, which reveals the comprehensive approach adopted to discover, understand and explain the challenges of architecture in the Muslim world as it confronts modernity in all its diversity. The Jury identified four areas of social meaning to illustrate the winning projects: how the complexity of history and of historical memory can be expressed in architecture; how private initiatives are integrated into the emerging public sphere; how to express individuality within complex social settings and in the context of the plurality of Muslim traditions; and how power and authority in the global domains of technology, culture and economics might be addressed through architecture. Throughout their two weeklong meetings at the Award headquarters in Geneva, the Jury gave foremost importance to projects that raise the standards of excellence.

The Jury met for the first time in January 2004 and started by reviewing 378 projects that had been nominated for the Ninth Cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. After vigorous and concentrated discussions, the Jury shortlisted twenty-three projects that were proposed for On-Site Project Review. During the second meeting, in June 2004, the Reviewers presented to the Jury their detailed reports and, after discussions, the Jury selected seven projects to receive the 2004 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
From the outset, the Jury agreed that they would need to seek out a comprehensive approach in order to discover, understand and explain the challenges of architecture in the Muslim world as it confronts modernity in all its diversity. Four areas of social meaning came to the fore, and the Jury expressed these as a series of questions.
The first question raises the issue of how the complexity of history and of historical memory can be expressed in architecture. Because restoration deals with history in architectural terms, it tends, pragmatically, not simply to freeze the past as it may have existed at a given moment. Instead, restoration increasingly responds to the needs of present-day groups and individuals, who often use historic buildings for new purposes. By accommodating historical meaning and contemporary needs, a building retains social meaning rather than becoming simply an object of tourism.
Secondly, the Jury considered the question of how private initiatives are integrated into the emerging public sphere. The Jury believes that the development of a pluralist public realm is one of the most important issues facing many Muslim countries. Today, more and more private initiatives in the public realm empower societies and address their needs, be it in the fields of education, sanitation or other social requirements. Architecture plays an important role in manifesting these endeavors, and the Jury especially appreciated a balanced relationship between the social content of an initiative and its architectural representation.

The winning projects also address the question of how to express individuality in complex social settings. In modernity, architecture expresses individuality, permitting a poetical interpretation of the self. The Jury recognized the growing awareness and appreciation of individuality in the Muslim world. On the one hand, this individuality counters the idea that Muslim societies emphasize collective identities, and on the other hand it reveals the plurality of Muslim traditions.
The fourth question the Jury considered was the issue of how power and authority in the global domains of technology, culture and economics might be addressed through architecture. The Jury paid special attention to the responsibility of architecture in the Muslim world and to projects that show understanding of the worldwide exchange of technological, cultural and economic knowledge in local contexts. The translation of global identities into architecture – which can occur in the technology used in buildings or in the potential functions of buildings – was considered by the Jury to be of great importance for many parts of the Muslim world.
The Jury also analysed how these four issues have been transferred to architecture. It is common sense that the way structure and design are used in a project should always be adequate to the issue addressed. Adequacy, however, does not mean simply assigning a form to a problem and updating traditional architectural solutions. It means adopting a critical perspective on the problem and addressing it by means of architectural techniques.The Jury recognized this by giving importance to projects that raise the standards of excellence.

Finally, the Jury focused on the social, cultural and environmental impact of the projects, analysing the balance between intention and realization, meaning and material, and functionality and use. The integration of projects within the environment and the criticism of tradition were also factors in assessing projects.
Architecture in the Muslim world partakes of all the features of modernity in architecture.
However, it often also tries to incorporate specific Islamic meanings, and it is only in such deliberate instances that architecture can be labelled ‘Islamic’. When ‘Islamic’ traditions are followed instinctively, the result is simply architecture in a Muslim cultural context. This means that there is a difference between architecture in the Muslim world and what is defined in discourse as ‘Islamic architecture’. The plurality of architecture in the Muslim world is evident at many levels: in varied discourses on architecture; in architecture that deals with restoration in ways that re-establish the generic pluralism of Muslim culture; and in the multiplicity of forms produced by a variety of social, cultural and economic environments. The Jury was particularly aware of the complexity of the plurality of the Muslim world and was critical of those projects that tried to establish a cultural normativity that could threaten that plurality.
The Jury consisting of following members believes that all seven projects selected for the 2004 Aga Khan Award for Architecture meet with the foregoing criteria.
Ghada Amer
Hanif Kara
Rahul Mehrotra
Farshid Moussavi
Modjtaba Sadria
Reinhard Schulze
ElÌas Torres Tur
Billie Tsien
Jafar Tukan

Bibliotheca Alexandrina Alexandria, Egypt
Client: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt
Architects: Sn¯hetta Hamza Consortium, Egypt and Norway
Completed: October 2002

Description

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a revival of the legendary ancient library built in classical Greek times. The rebuilding of the library has returned Alexandria to its former status as a centre for learning and exchange and provided the city with a landmark building. The spirit of international cooperation in which the library was conceived, funded, designed and implemented has been maintained in its management to create an institution that is truly global in its outlook. At the same time, the building is technically outstanding. Alexandria is Egypt’s main port, forming a large industrial and commercial centre and an important summer resort. In 1974, the University of Alexandria began a campaign for the rebuilding of the ancient library, choosing the current site, which is believed to be close to the original location. In 1988, Egypt’s President Mubarak took up the project at a national level and an international competition, organized by the Egyptian government in collaboration with the International Union of Architects, was won by the Norwegian company Sn¯hetta in 1989. Detailed archaeological excavations of the site were carried out before construction began in 1995, and the building opened in October 2002. The library was designed as a tilting disc rising from the ground, with four levels below ground and seven above. The scale of the building is thus minimized at close quarters, so it does not overwhelm the visitor. The facility provides a main reading room with seating for 2,000 readers, six specialist libraries, three museums, seven research centres, three permanent galleries, space for temporary exhibitions, a planetarium, a public plaza, offices,
a cafeteria and all the necessary services required for such a complex. The circular form of the library also has strong symbolic significance and an iconic presence. Its exterior wall is clad with four thousand granite blocks carved with letters from the alphabets of the world.

The main reading area is a single open space with eight terraces, each accommodating a different subject section, starting from the roots of knowledge (philosophy, history, religion, geography) and ending with the latest technologies.

The substructure of the library is the most innovative part of the project. The half submersion of the building 18 metres below ground on a site close to the sea raised serious structural problems. Its circular diaphragm wall is considered the largest in the world, with a diameter of 160 metres and a height of 35 metres. The foundations are unique in that they were designed as tension piles with a heavy raft foundation on the south side and as compression piles to take the weight on the north side.
One of the most successful features of the building is its use of natural light, drawn in through glazed panels on the roof. The orientation of the roof panels was carefully studied on computer at the design stage to introduce maximum levels of natural light without direct sunlight.

The library and the planetarium are linked at basement level, beneath a public plaza, to an existing conference centre, while a pedestrian bridge spans the plaza between the university and the coastal road.
Most of the users are students from the University of Alexandria and local schools.
Various conferences held in the complex have received regional and international attention, raising the profile of the whole city. The library has also acted as a catalyst for improvements throughout the city, such as renovating roads, building bridges and upgrading hotels. The library is seen as a progressive landmark for the country as a whole, reinstating Egypt on the map as an open, modern centre of cultural exchange.

1 2 3 4 5 >>