Aga Khan Award for Architecture announces its Steering Committee for 2025 Award
Geneva, Switzerland, 18 October 2023 – The Aga Khan Award for Architecture has announced the members of its Steering Committee for the 2023-2025 cycle.
The Steering Committee governs the Award and is chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan.
Newly appointed members of the Steering Committee are:
• Meisa Batayneh, Principal Architect, Founder, maisam architects and engineers, Amman, Jordan.
• Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Professor in the departments of French and Philosophy, Columbia University, New York, USA
• Lesley Lokko, Founder & Director, African Futures Institute, Accra, Ghana
• Gülru Necipoğlu, Director and Professor, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
• Hashim Sarkis, Dean, School of Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
• Sarah M. Whiting, Dean, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
A new committee is constituted each cycle to establish the eligibility criteria for project submissions, provide thematic direction in response to emerging priorities and issues, and to develop plans for the future of the Award. One of its most important tasks is to select an independent Master Jury which, in turn, selects award recipients from projects nominated.
“The Award has been most effective when at the forefront of identifying key issues facing the built environment and selecting relevant projects to address these concerns,” said Princess Zahra Aga Khan, at the Steering Committee’s inaugural meeting. “The challenges of climate change and environmental degradation are today intertwined with geo-political shifts, migration, natural disasters, and rapid urbanisation. I would, therefore, urge members of the Steering Committee to emphasise in this cycle, infrastructure, climate change as well as the important role of civil society actors in shaping how we live, work and play.”
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.
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 US$ 1,000,000. Winners who shared this prize during the last cycle in 2022, included: 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).
