The mission of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture is different from many other architecture awards: it rewards not only architects, but also recognizes municipalities, builders, clients, craftsmen and engineers who played essential roles in realizing the project. This publication thus presents the projects from different perspectives along with detailed and up-to-date images and descriptions.
The interdisciplinary principal jury and steering committee for this cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture which determines the projects submitted includes David Chipperfield, Frances Kéré, Anna Lacaton, Marina Tapasom and Sarah M Whiting, to name a few. Scientific articles in various disciplines from members of the main jury and the steering committee complement the publication. Contributions include a text on the optimism of humanism by Suleiman Bachir Diagne, director of the Institute for African Studies at Columbia University, and a contextualization of modern architecture in the Islamic world by Sibel Bozdoğan of Boston University. Kazi Khalid Ashraf, Director General of the Bengal Institute of Architecture, Landscape and Settlements in Dhaka, Bangladesh, writes about the dialogic perspective, while Nasir Rabat, Aga Khan Professor at MIT, shares observations on Architecture as Human Empire. Texts also include Salon of Rejects by Nader Tehrani, founding principal of the Boston-based architecture firm NADAAA.
The texts, which come from a wide range of geographical areas, are informative and descriptive, often striking an emotional note. Along with presentations of the project, the publication guides the reader through considering an increasingly pressing architectural question in today’s times of crisis: how to build ethically for our shared global future.
With contributions from Kazi Khalid Ashraf, Sibel Bozdogan, Suleiman Bashir Dayani, Farouk Derakhshani, Naser Rabat, Nader Tehrani, and Sarah M. Whiting.