Six projects awarded Aga Khan architecture prize

AL-AIN, United Arab Emirates (AFP) -- A dome-less mosque designed by a Bangladeshi woman architect and a Beirut institute by the late Zaha Hadid were among six projects awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture on Sunday.

The prestigious prize was awarded at a ceremony in Al-Ain oasis city, in the United Arab Emirates, to the projects chosen from a list of 348 works.

They will share a prize of $1 million.

“Gone are the dome and the ever-prevalent minarets, the decorative panels of designed relief and calligraphy. In their place stand intricately structured brick walls that imbue the structure within a unique aura of spirituality,” said the jury describing Dhaka’s Bait ur Rouf mosque designed by Marina Tabassum.

As well as Hadid’s Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, the winning projects included Tehran’s Tabiat Pedestrian Bridge and Copenhagen’s Superkilen kilometer-long urban park.

They also included the Friendship Centre in Gaibandha, a training facility for the nongovernmental organization Friendship that works with communities living in rural flatlands of northern Bangladesh.

Beijing’s Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre was also among the winners.

Awarded every three years, the prize was established in 1977 and is given to “projects that set new standards of excellence in architecture, planning practices, historic preservation and landscape architecture.”

The awards were presented by UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum and Aga Khan IV, the wealthy imam of Nizari Ismaili Shiites.