The Aga Khan Award for Architecture has announced the Master Jury for the 2017-2019 Cycle. The jury independently will select the recipients of the US $1 million Award, and will convene in January 2019 to select a shortlist from hundreds of nominated projects.

The 9-member Master Jury panel is comprised of architects, urbanists, academics and theorists who contributed to the field of architecture. The Aga Khan Award for Architecture is part of the Geneva-based Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), which has a wide range of activities aimed at the preservation and promotion of the material and cultural heritage of Muslim societies.

Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing, China by ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke. The project is winner of the Awards in the 2014-2016 Cycle.

Founded in 1977 by Aga Khan IV, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture is given every three years to projects that set new standards of excellence in architecture, planning practices, historic preservation and landscape architecture. 

The Award seeks to identify and encourage building concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of societies across the world, in which Muslims have a significant presence.

The Master Jury panel is comprised of:

• Kwame Anthony Akroma-Ampim Kusi Appiah, an Anglo-Ghanaian American philosopher and cultural theorist recognized for his work in 2012 by President Obama, 
• Meisa Batayneh, founder and principal architect of maisam architects & engineers in Amman and Abu Dhabi, 
• Sir David Chipperfield, founder and principal of David Chipperfield Architects in London and Berlin, 
• Elizabeth Diller, co-founder and principal of Diller Scofidio Renfro in New York, 
• Edhem Eldem, a Professor of History at Boğaziçi University (Istanbul) and International Chair of Turkish and Ottoman History at the Collège de France, 
• Mona Fawaz, Professor in Urban Studies and Planning, and the director of the Social Justice and the City research programme at the American University of Beirut, 
• Kareem Ibrahim, Egyptian architect and urban researcher who worked on UNDP’s Historic Cairo Rehabilitation Project, 
• Ali M. Malkawi, professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and founding director of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities,
• Nondita Correa Mehrotra, principal of RMA Architects in India and the United States

Once the Master Jury selects a shortlist, the shortlisted projects are then subjected to rigorous on-site reviews by independent experts, most of them architects, conservation specialists, planners or structural engineers. The Jury meets for a second time in summer 2019 to examine the on-site reviews and select the final recipients of the Award.

The selection process emphasises architecture that not only provides for people’s physical, social and economic needs, but that also stimulates and responds to their cultural aspirations. Particular attention is given to building schemes that use local resources and appropriate technology in innovative ways and to projects likely to inspire similar efforts elsewhere.

Bait Ur Rouf Mosque, Dhaka, Bangladesh by Marina Tabassum. The project is winner of the Awards in the 2014-2016 Cycle. Image © Rajesh Vora

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture is governed by a Steering Committee chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan. The other members of the Steering Committee are: Sir David Adjaye, Principal Adjaye Associates, London; Mohammad al-Asad, Founding Director, Center for the Study of the Built Environment, Amman; Emre Arolat, Founder, EAA- Emre Arolat Architecture, New York-London-Istanbul; Francesco Bandarin, Special Advisor, UNESCO, Paris; Hanif Kara, Design Director - AKT II, London, and Professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge; Azim Nanji, Special Advisor, Aga Khan University, Nairobi; Nasser Rabbat, Aga Khan Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; Brigitte Shim, Partner, Shim- Sutcliffe Architects, Toronto; and Marina Tabassum, Principal, Marina Tabassum Architects, Dhaka.

Farrokh Derakhshani is the Director of the Award.

Top image (from left to right): Kwame Anthony Akroma-Ampim Kusi Appiah, Meisa Batayneh, Sir David Chipperfield, Elizabeth Diller, Edhem Eldem, Mona Fawaz, Kareem Ibrahim, Ali M. Malkawi, Nondita Correa Mehrotra. Images courtesy of AKDN.

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