Jakarta airport wins Aga Khan Award
Jakarta airport wins Aga Khan Award
JAKARTA (JP): The Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, the main gateway to Indonesia's capital of Jakarta, has been named one of the 12 winners of this year's prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
The spacious airport structure, with its roof modeled on the traditional Javanese joglo house, and surrounded by well-tended gardens, was designed by French architect Paul Andreu and his Indonesian team.
It won the award for its innovative landscaping design.
The Soekarno-Hatta airport was picked along with 11 other projects in the Middle East, Asia and Africa for the Aga Khan awards. The award will be presented in a ceremony in Surakarta this weekend.
The winners were selected from 442 nominees by the Geneva- based Moslem Aga Khan social foundation. The foundation was set up in 1957 by the Aga Khan, leader of the Ismaili Moslems, grandfather of Prince Karim Aga Khan, the current leader.
Prince Karim Aga Khan arrived yesterday to personally lead the ceremony, which will also be attended by President Soeharto.
The prince is scheduled to meet with President Soeharto today in Jakarta before flying to Yogyakarta, a city near Surakarta.
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture is part of the Aga Khan Development Network, which is involved in health, education, rural development and economic development, as well as architectural education, research and restoration of architecture in Asia and Africa.
Since the award was founded in 1977, numerous projects in Indonesia have won the award. The last one being the work of Catholic priest Mangunwijaya for his kampong improvement program in Kali Code in Yogyakarta in 1992.
Passion
French architect Paul Andreu told The Jakarta Post he was very happy to learn about the award.
"Another reason to be happy is the attachment I feel for the Jakarta airport project. I worked with a great passion for many years on that project. I found around me a lot of people as passionate as I was, with whom I could develop a real friendship, which I believe reflects on that project," Andreu said.
The award recipient for the airport is Andreu's entire project team, made up of Zainuddin Sikado, Soetomo Adisasmito, Titi Wuyantari, PT Konavi, PT Cakar Bumi and PT Dacrea Avia.
The airport construction, which was started in 1977, was done in two stages. The first phase was completed in December 1984 and the second in June 1991. The two terminals have a capacity to handle 25 million passengers a year.
Other award winners were the Bukhara old city restoration in Uzbekistan, the Yemen conservation of Old Sana'a, the Tunisia reconstruction of Hafsia Quarter II, the Pakistan Khuda-ki-Basti Incremental Development Scheme in Hyderabad, the Indian Aranya community housing, the Saudi Arabia Great Mosque of Riyadh and redevelopment of the old city center, Malaysia's Menara Mesiniaga in Kuala Lumpur, Mauritania's Kaedi Regional Hospital, the Turkey Mosque of the Grand National Assembly, the Senegal Alliance Franco-Senegalaise and the Turkey's reforestation program of the Middle East Technical university.
The awards of this sixth triennial have a total prize fund of US$500,000. (hbk)