Aga Khan Award for Architecture Announces Start of 2023-25 Nominations

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) yesterday hosted a two-part seminar at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). During the evening of presentations on the latest cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA), critical issues of the built environment, sustainability, and heritage with case studies from around the world were also discussed. The seminar coincides with the week-long World Architecture Festival 2023 in Singapore, featuring presentations by hundreds of renowned architects and upcoming designers.

Values in Practice Seminar 

“Singapore is the hotbed of sustainability, conservation, and world-class architecture, which has produced examples such as WOHA architects and Kerry Hill Architects who have won awards at previous award cycles. The Southeast Asian region is increasingly finding its niche in the global environment, and we are pleased to have had representatives in previous AKAA Master Juries,” said Farrokh Derakhshani, Director of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. An exhibition of 2022 award winners will be on display at SUTD till 28 December 2023.

Farrokh Derakhshani, Director of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture officially announced that the nomination process for the 2023-2025 Award Cycle 

The panels of stellar architects include the most recent and past award winners, academics, and practitioners from Southeast Asia including Andra Matin (andramatin); Daliana Suryawinata (SHAU) Dr. Chong Keng Hua (Singapore University of Technology and Design);  Wong Mun Summ (WOHA Architects); Kamil Merican (GDP Architects), Ms. I-Jin Chew – WATG and Wimberly Interiors; Dr. Imran Tajuddin (National University of Singapore); and moderators Dr. Hossein Rezai (Ramboll & Milan Research Lab), and Sarah Ichioka (Desire Lines Pte Ltd). 

AKAA invited several most recent and past award winners, academics, and practitioners from Southeast Asia to join the International Awards Regional Professional Development Seminar

The event was attended by approximately 300 delegates from architecture, sustainability, civil society, and the diplomatic community, supported by DesignSingapore Council, Ismaili CIVIC, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Singapore Institute of Landscape Architects and Singapore Institute of Architects.

Farrokh Derakhshani Leading Exhibition Tour - Jean Wee, National Heritage Board (on his right)

At the Singapore event, Derakhshani also officially announced that the nomination process for the 2023-2025 Award Cycle was now open. He further explained that to be eligible for consideration in the 2025 Award cycle, projects must be completed between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2023 and should have been in use for at least one full year.

Delegates Reviewing AKAA Exhibition

Event partner, Ismaili CIVIC contributed to help make the seminar as sustainable as possible. They consciously aspired to reduce their carbon footprint by arranging 100% electric bus transportation for 150 delegates from four locations across Singapore. They also organized post-event carpool stations on-site, gifted plants used for the event forward to SUTD to sequester carbon emissions produced, and curated zero waste, plant-based catering. The audience and vendors were encouraged to share their carbon emissions to help assess the total footprint. Findings and solutions were presented during the closing remarks by Ismaili CIVIC Singapore representative, Akbar Makani.

Akbar Makani, Ismaili CIVIC Singapore representative

Established in 1977, 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 projects that represent the broadest possible range of architectural interventions, with attention given to building schemes that use local resources and appropriate technology in innovative ways, and those that are likely to inspire similar efforts elsewhere. Projects can be anywhere in the world but must successfully address the needs and aspirations of societies in which Muslims have a significant presence.

Aga Khan Award for Architecture 

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture has completed 15 cycles of activity since 1977 and has documented over 9,000 building projects throughout the world. It has a prize fund of $1 million. The winners who shared this prize during the last cycle in 2022 were: Urban River Spaces and Community Spaces in Rohingya Refugee Response (Bangladesh); Banyuwangi International Airport (Indonesia); Argo Contemporary Art Museum (Iran); the renovation of Niemeyer Guest House (Lebanon); and Kamanar Secondary School (Senegal).

This cycle’s Award Steering Committee, chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan includes: 

1. Meisa Batayneh, Principal Architect, Founder, maisam architects and engineers, Amman, Jordan
2. Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Professor in the departments of French and Philosophy, Columbia University, New York, USA
3. Lesley Lokko, Founder & Director, African Futures Institute, Accra, Ghana
4. Gülru Necipoğlu, Director and Professor of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
5. Hashim Sarkis, Dean, School of Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
6. Sarah M. Whiting, Dean, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA

The rigor of its nomination and selection process has made it, in the eyes of many observers, one of the world’s most important architectural prizes.

All images are provided by Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA)