The completed excavations of the 6th-century palace of the Umayyad sultans of Jerusalem have been preserved as an archaeological garden. In the palace courtyard a new structure offers a shady place from which to contemplate 'the pleasure of ruins'. Its form is inspired by the stone shade pavilion next to the Dome of the Rock, but it is built as a laser-cut steel structure of two-inch pipes strengthened by flat steel flanges that widen and narrow according to the bending moments, in the process taking on forms reminiscent of Islamic decorative motifs.
Umayyad Archaeological Garden Presentation Panels. Courtesy of Architect. Geneva: Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 2007.
Description
In the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, projects enrolled in the nomination process are documented by the architect(s). In addition to submitting images and drawings, architects are asked to complete a detailed questionnaire pertaining to use, cost, environmental and climatic factors, construction materials, building schedule, and, more importantly, design concepts and each project's significance within its own context and to present the project in two A3 panels.
