Winners of prestigious architecture award announced

Winners of prestigious architecture award announced

JAKARTA (JP): A leper hospital in India and a contemporary
Malay house which took six carpenters six years to construct were
among the seven winners of the prestigious Aga Khan Award for
Architecture announced last week.

The award, presented every three years, "identifies and
encourages building concepts that successfully address the needs
and aspirations of Moslem societies".

Established by the Aga Khan in 1977, it is the largest and
most prestigious architecture award in the world.

The other five recipients of this year's award were a
community based sanitation and environmental improvement program
in the slums of the Indian city of Indore; a fortress surrounded
by immense tent-like structures, used as a recreation center for
diplomats in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the restoration of over 150
ancient houses and shops in Hebron Old Town; the futuristic new
State Assembly for the government of Madhya Pradesh in Bhopal,
India, and the polygonal structures that form the Alhamra Arts
Council in Lahore, Pakistan.

Award recipients receive a share of the US$500,000 prize money
provided by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. If deemed
appropriate, the honor and the prize money is shared by all those
involved in the project. In 1980, the architect, master mason,
plasterer and carpenter of a summer house in Egypt all received
commendations and a share of the prize money.

The 424 projects nominated for the 1998 award were evaluated
by a panel of nine independent jurors, including Indonesian
architect and educator Yuswadi Saliya from the Bandung Institute
of Technology.

They were not only evaluated on their technical merits but
also their ability to meet people's physical, social, spiritual,
cultural and economic needs.

In an interview in Paris in August, the Aga Khan said he was
proud of the egalitarian nature of the awards.

"People still ask why an award for architecture honors
artisans and craftsmen. But architecture is an art for which a
large number of people contribute and I believe that it is
important to give credit to as many as we can".

In its 21st year, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture has
honored four Indonesian projects and several others have received
honorable mentions.

In 1995, the landscaping integration of Soekarno-Hatta
International Airport was recognized. In 1992, Father Yusuf
Bilyarta Mangunwijaya received the award for his transformation
of a riverbank slum in Yogyakarta into a colorful and healthy
urban environment.

One of the primary objectives of the award is to improve
living conditions and opportunities, particularly in the Third
World.

The Aga Khan expressed his concern about the consequences of
the liberalization of the economies of the developing world,
where initiative for economic change is being driven by
individual entrepreneurs.

"These men and women are usually not particularly concerned
with damage to the environment around them and therefore I am
worried about how we can help make this process of change occur
in an appropriate manner."

The award ceremony was held on Friday in Granada, Spain, in
the presence of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia of Spain and
the Aga Khan and the Begum Aga Khan. (Brigid O'Halloran)