Recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1980.
This medical complex consists of two clinics, one of which is a maternity centre, and a 70-bed hospital. Its design and construction respect Mopti's great mud brick mosque nearby and the low-scaled mud structures of the town. The walls and part of the roof structure are of traditional banco construction using a mixture of local grey clay stabilised with concrete. Surfaces are finished with a smooth cement coating. Window openings are provided with metal shutters shaded by brise-soleils and deep overhangs. Heights of rooms vary to provide clerestory vents which ensure a flow of air through the clinics and wards. The latter surround a private courtyard. The galleries adjoining this enclosure invite use for cooking and sleeping by the patients' families accustomed by tradition to staying nearby and preparing food for them. The jury commended the builders of this centre "for creating a medical complex which responds with great sympathy both to the culture and to the sensitive surroundings. The design takes into account local traditions and practices, and makes effective use of available materials and techniques of construction. The imaginative relationship of public to private spaces within the complex is not only successful in use, but helps to integrate the building into the existing urban fabric."
Holod, Renata and Darl Rastorfer, editors. Architecture and Community. New York: Aperture, 1983.
Description
To many Westerners, the Taj Mahal in all its splendor typifies Islamic architecture. Yet, the overwhelming majority of Muslims live on the very margin of human existence, far from such grandeur. The merging of Islam's rich cultural heritage with modern technology to help solve problems of individual survival in the contemporary world forms the heart of Architecture and Community. The fifteen projects celebrated in this volume are the winners of the first (1980) Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Most of the projects reflect the present period of transition in Islamic architecture, marked by experimentation and the search for forms responsive to human needs. The hospitals, schools and libraries, homes and hotels, urban-renewal schemes and restorations honored help to redefine architectural excellence as they attempt to resolve the most basic and critical issues confronting the poor peoples of developing nations. The Islamic world is commencing a journey of discovery that helps point the way for future building throughout the world. Architecture and Community brings to life in photographs and drawings and in essays by architects, urban planners, sociologists, and philosophers a mandate for all countries to develop an architecture that is centered on the needs, both practical and spiritual, of man. Architecture and Community is the first in a series of books under the general title "Building in the Islamic World Today".
