KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — Nine architectural projects in the Muslim world, ranging from a mud-brick marketplace to a modern university campus, were honoured by the Aga Khan Tuesday in the world's richest architectural awards.
The honours were announced at a ceremony in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, itself a previous winner for its shimmering Petronas Towers, once the world's tallest building.
Winning projects, which share a 500,000-dollar prize, include the University of Technology Petronas in Malaysia designed by Britain's Norman Foster, and the restoration of the ancient city of Shibam in Yemen.
"The essence of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture is to examine, analyse, understand and try to influence the dynamic of physical change in Islamic societies," the Aga Khan said ahead of the ceremony.
Other winners are the Samir Kassir Square in Beirut, a striking minimalist space featuring a reflecting pool, stone bench and wooden decking centred on two historic ficus trees.
The Amiriya Complex in Rada, Yemen, involved 500 craftsmen and artisans who used traditional methods to rescue the 16th century complex which had been in a precarious state.
Singapore's Moulmein Rise Residential was lauded as a tropical high-rise which utilises low-energy strategies instead of relying on mechanical climate-control systems.
The Central Market in Koudougou, Burkina Faso, a sprawling site fashioned from mud bricks, was celebrated for showing how "humble earth blocks can be used to create a sophisticated pattern language of vaults, domes and arches".
The very contemporary Royal Netherlands Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was praised for shrugging off the constraints of security and surveillance, and creating a "walled eucalyptus grove in the city".
In Nicosia, the rehabilitation of the walled city was honoured as a remarkable joint effort between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities to regenerate the historic area.
One of the smallest winners, a primary school in Bangladesh, was hand-built in four months by architects, local craftsmen, pupils, parents and teachers using traditional methods and materials with an innovative twist.
The awards, which are bestowed every three years, were established in 1977 by the Aga Kha, the spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims.