Al-Ain, UAE, 3 October 2016 – The winners of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture were announced October 4th in a ceremony in Al-Ain. The venue for the winners’ ceremony, the Al Jahili fort in Al-Ain, was also announced by His Excellency Awaidha Murshed Al Marar, Chairman of Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport and a member of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi.
The winners are:

BANGLADESH

  • Bait Ur Rouf Mosque, Dhaka (Architect: Marina Tabassum): A refuge for spirituality in urban Dhaka, selected for its beautiful use of natural light.
  • Friendship Centre, Gaibandha (Architect: Kashef Chowdhury / URBANA): A community centre which makes a virtue of an area susceptible to flooding in rural Bangladesh.

 

CHINA

  • Micro Yuan’er Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke): A children’s library selected for its embodiment of contemporary life in the traditional courtyard residences of Beijing’s Hutongs.

 

DENMARK

  • Superkilen, Copenhagen (Architects: BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, Topotek 1 and Superflex): A public space promoting integration across lines of ethnicity, religion and culture.

 

IRAN

  • Tabiat Pedestrian Bridge, Tehran (Architect: Diba Tensile Architecture / Leila Araghian, Alireza Behzadi): A multi-level bridge spanning a busy motorway has created a dynamic new urban space.

 

LEBANON

  • Issam Fares Institute, Beirut (Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects): A new building for the American University of Beirut’s campus, radical in composition but respectful of its traditional context.