The thirteenth Aga Khan Award for Architecture — its ninth award cycle — was held this year. From among 343 submitted projects, nine were selected as laureates, sharing a prize of US$500,000. The Aga Khan Award is held every three years and honours architecture that improves the quality of life of Muslim communities across all fields.
The winners of the 2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture were: (1) Samir Kassir Square, Beirut (Lebanon); (2) Rehabilitation of Shibam, Yemen; (3) Central Market of Koudougou, Burkina Faso; (4) University of Technology Petronas, Malaysia; (5) Restoration of the Amiriya Complex, Yemen; (6) Rehabilitation of the Walled City of Nicosia, Cyprus; (7) Royal Netherlands Embassy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; (8) School in Rudrapur, Bangladesh; (9) Moulmein Rise residential tower, Singapore.
Samir Kassir Square in Beirut, designed by Vladimir Djurovic, created a calm, small space out of what was originally a busy street in the heart of Beirut's commercial centre. The Central Market of Koudougou in Burkina Faso, by Laurent Sechaud and Pierre Jequier, used simple, local materials to give calm to the market precinct. The Rudrapur school in Bangladesh, by Anna Heringer and Eike Roswag, offered a model for rural architecture through the use of earth, bamboo and simple local materials. The Moulmein Rise residential tower in Singapore, by WOHA, responded to tropical high-rise architecture through movable sunshades and other sustainable elements.
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which is the cultural arm of the Aga Khan Development Network, works through its institutions in more than thirty countries to improve the quality of life of Muslim communities, particularly in Asia and Africa. Those interested may obtain the award's PDF file from: The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, P.O. Box 2049, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland — E-mail: akaa@akdn.org.
