The six winning projects of the 2019 Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) were acclaimed at a ceremony held at Kazan's Musa Jalil State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. Mintimer Shaimiev, State Counsellor of the Republic of Tatarstan, accompanied His Highness the Aga Khan in presiding over the Award Ceremony. The six projects to share a US $1 million prize, as selected by the 2019 Award Master Jury are:
Revitalisation of Muharraq, Bahrain, Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh, Palestinian Museum, Birzeit, Palestine, Public Spaces Development Programme, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation, Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal and Wasit Wetland Centre, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
The six Award recipients, spanning three continents, include an urban heritage intervention, a floating school, a national museum, an ambitious programme to introduce public spaces across hundreds of localities, a university's classrooms and halls, and an ecological centre. Speaking at the ceremony, Aga Khan noted that on this visit to Tatarstan, he had seen "how committed people can honour the power both of cultural identity and cultural pluralism."
"It is striking to see how churches and mosques, for example, have been built and preserved right next to one another as powerful symbols of a profound intercultural dialogue," he said. These were examples, the Aga Khan explained, of what the world was in particular need of today, as we seek to meet accelerating environmental, social, technological, economic and political challenges.
The award ceremony was attended by Eleonora Valentinovna Mitrofanova, the Ambassador-at-large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, other government officials, ambassadors and members of the international diplomatic corps, and leading members of the architectural community from around the world.-PR