Two projects from Bangladesh, one from Indonesia, Iran, Lebanon, and Senegal Won Aga Khan Award For Architecture (AKAA) 2022 | Complete List | SR News Update

Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) has announced the winners of the 2022 edition. Out of 463 projects nominated for the 15th Award cycle (2020-2022), the six winners set new standards of excellence in architecture, planning practices, reuse and area conservation, historic preservation and landscape architecture. Two Bangladesh projects, one from Iran, Indonesia, Lebanon and Senegal won the 2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) and will share the $1 million Award, one of the largest in architecture. See SURFACES REPORTER (SR)’s complete report below:

Also Read: MATECIA BUILDING PRODUCTS EXHIBITION Gets Roaring Success with Massive Footfall at Pragati Maidan Delhi

The Aga Khan Award For Architecture (AKAA) 2022 ceremony, which marks its 45^th anniversary, took place in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, in conjunction with the Aga Khan Music Awards ceremony. From a pool of 463 nominated projects, jury comprising nine dignified members shortlisted 20 projects from 16 different countries for this year's prize. Out of those 20 vying projects, six won the battle. 

Here is the Complete List of  2022 Aga Khan Award Winners:

Bangladesh

Urban River Spaces, Jhenaidah,

Through consistent community participation and appropriation, extensive involvement of women and marginalised groups, and a local workforce, the seemingly simple undertaking of cleaning up the access to the Nabaganga river in Jhenaidah led to a thoughtful and minimal landscaping project with local materials and construction techniques, thus transforming a derelict informal dump site into an attractive and accessible multifunctional space that is valued by Jhenaidah’s diverse communities. As such, the project managed to reverse the ecological degradation and health hazards of the river and its banks, and induce effective ecological improvement of the river, in one of the most riverine countries on earth. [Extract, Jury Citation]

Community Spaces in Rohingya Refugee Response, Cox’s Bazar

The six temporary community spaces of the Rohingya Refugee Response programme provide a dignified, sensitive and ingenious response to emergency needs related to the major influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladeshi host communities, with particular attention to the safety of women and girls. The concept and design of the six spaces are the result of appropriate planning, solid partnerships and inclusive processes involving the diverse refugee and host communities, such as defining spatial and functional needs. [Extract, Jury Citation]

Indonesia

Banyuwangi International Airport, Blimbingsari, East Java

Arising from a sea of a paddy fields, the building extends the language of the landscape into a concentrated event that coalesces architecture, functionality and setting in a seamless yet discernible disposition. Modern and efficient in all aspects, but at home in its place, Banyuwangi International Airport may be a game-changer in airport architecture, especially considering that the Indonesian government is set to build some 300 airports in the near future. [Extract, Jury Citation]

Iran

Argo Contemporary Art Museum and Cultural Centre, Tehran

In the dense urban neighbourhood that is Tehran’s historical centre, this untypical reuse and conservation project has transformed the Argo Factory – a former brewery whose activities were moved 10 years before the Iranian Revolution, for pollution reasons, to a site outside the city – into a private museum for contemporary art. From the ruins of the original building, the existing brewery was renovated and new surfaces built with a subtle approach and design. A variety of spaces for exhibitions, talks and films were developed over four levels, and a new artist residence was built adjacent to the museum. [Extract, Jury Citation]

Lebanon

Renovation of Niemeyer Guest House, Tripoli

The renovation of the Niemeyer Guest House is an inspiring tale of architecture’s capacity for repair, at a time of dizzying, entangled crisis around the world, and in Lebanon in particular, as the country faces unprecedented political, socio-economic and environmental collapse. Located on the outskirts of Tripoli – one of the oldest and most beautiful port cities, once renowned for its craft but today ravaged by extreme poverty, migration and lack of public space – the rehabilitation of the Guest House is part of the Rachid Karami International Fair (RKIF), the unfinished masterpiece of the architect Oscar Niemeyer. [Extract, Jury Citation]

Senegal

Kamanar Secondary School, Thionck Essyl

A campus replete with infrastructure, buildings, landscapes and furnishings, the Kamanar Secondary School is unique in that it addresses the multiple scales of urbanism, landscape, architecture and building technologies with equal commitment and virtuosity. The site’s topography and flora are the key founding conditions of this project, prompting the introduction of a grid of classroom pods organised around pre-existing tree canopies, adopting their shade as social spaces that serve the students and teachers alike. [Extract, Jury Citation]

The Award not only rewards architects, but also identifies municipalities, builders, clients, master artisans and engineers who have played important roles in the project. In the past 15 triennial cycles of the Award, 128 projects have been awarded and nearly 10,000 building projects have been documented.

The nine members of the independent Master Jury who selected the AKAA's 2022 winners were: 

1. Francis Kéré, an AKAA laureate and internationally renowned Burkinabè architect who received the Award in 2004 for his first project, an elementary school in Gando, Burkina Faso ; 
2. Nada Al Hassan, an architect specialising in the conservation of architectural and urban heritage;
3. Kader Attia, an artist who explores the wide-ranging effects of western cultural hegemony and colonialism;
4. Amale Andraos, Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; 
5. Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, director-general of Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements, in Dhaka, Bangladesh; 
6. Lina Ghotmeh, a French-Lebanese architect who leads a practice where every project learns from a vernacular past to build a new “déjà-là”;
7. Sibel Bozdogan, a Visiting Professor of Modern Architecture and Urbanism at the Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Boston University; 
8. Nader Tehrani, founding principal of NADAAA, a practice dedicated to design innovation, collaboration and a dialogue with the construction industry; and 
9. Anne Lacaton, founder of Lacaton & Vassal in Bordeaux in 1989, who focuses on the generosity of space and economy of means.

The AKAA was started in 1977 by His Highness the Aga Khan, to find out and promote building concepts that successfully address “the needs and aspirations of communities in which Muslims have a significant presence.” Part of Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Aga Khan Award for Architecture is given every three years to projects show examples of architecture excellence in the domains of  historic preservation , contemporary design, social housing, planning practices, and landscape architecture. 

The AKAA is governed by a steering committee chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan. The other member of the steering committee is Marina Tabassum, principal, Marina Tabassum Architects, Dhaka. Farrokh Derakhshani is the director of the award.

A monograph that includes essays on issues raised by the Master Jury’s selections of the shortlist and the winners for the 2022 Award will be published by Architangle in October 2022.

Also Read: MATECIA BUILDING PRODUCTS EXHIBITION Gets Roaring Success with Massive Footfall at Pragati Maidan Delhi

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