Aga Khan Awards.

The jury(1) of this round of Aga Khan Awards for Architecture decided to use three themes: 'projects that address a critical social discourse', 'projects that address a critical architectural/urbanistic discourse' and 'projects that introduce innovative concepts'. It is difficult for an English magazine to cope with such language, but plainly this jury has elaborated on criteria evolved by the last(2), which set out to find 'economically sustainable, humanistic solutions ... relevant for the developed countries as well as the developing world'.(3) A concern for ecological appropriateness informed the decisions of that jury, as it does those of this one.

In the social category, the 1995 jury was looking for projects that 'should enrich the international debate about the problems of rapid urbanisation, historic cities and the problems of a growing urban underclass'. These criteria led to the choice of five projects: the Kuda-ki-Basti incremental housing scheme for the very poor of Hyderabad (p71); the reconstruction of the Hafsia Quarter, Tunis (p74) and the Aranya Community Housing scheme, Indore (p72), both housing projects for poor communities; the restoration of Bukhara Old City (p76) and the conservation of Old Sana'a (p78), both programmes for saving the fabric of ancient cities and adding new life to them.

Under the architectural/urbanistic rubric, the jury faced the problem that: 'In the Muslim world, the crisis of identity is manifest in the choice of architectural vocabularies. These tend to either reject the contemporary and repeat the iconic forms of the past ... or they try to break out of site and import the Westernised modern as an expression of "progress".' Other approaches are needed and three projects have been chosen to exemplify creative responses to past, present and future: the Kaedi Regional Hospital, Mauritania (p66), a brilliant, inventive development of new masonry techniques; the redevelopment of the Old City of Riyadh and its Great Mosque (opposite) - the evolution of a spatial morphology for the heart of a modern Arab city; the IBM tower, Kuala Lumpur, an attempt to evolve ecologically appropriate tower forms for the tropics (p70).

The third category, was intended to explore 'the liberating contribution that innovative concepts can make in rethinking the content of our evolving world ... Through the risk of implementing a new idea, a better world may be possible'. The four projects chosen are very different: the Mosque of the Grand National Assembly, Ankara, which with its glass qibla offers a wholly new experience of Muslim worship (p84); the Franco-Senegalese cultural centre, Kaolack, a joyous reinterpretation of decorative tradition and the contemporary notion of building as text (p80); the re-forestation project of the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, one of the biggest and most ecologically appropriate urban planting schemes ever undertaken (p79); the landscaping of the Jakarta international airport where the air side as well as the land side has been greened (p86). Only in this last case (why did the judges choose it) does the innovative concept category seem to be another way of describing also-rans (which, reading between the lines, the jury intended it to be). The other three projects in this category are so powerful and challenging in concept and execution that their admitted defects seem trivial.

The 1995 jury has laid great stress on its decisions being 'critical', and chides the award scheme for being over-pluralistic in the past. (Perhaps the criticism is rightly levelled at some of the decisions of the 1986 jury, of which Robert Venturi and Hans Hollein were members). But in many ways, pluralism has been one of the great strengths and messages of the Aga's programme. No other architectural institution tries to span so many different cultures, climates and types of architectural activity. Ali Shuaibi, the Saudi architect, remarks: 'In 1980, I, among many others, was disappointed to see that elevated water tanks and a kampong improvement programme were not only called architecture but premiated as excellent examples.'(4)

But like him, many of the rest of us have been convinced gradually (largely by the Award) that the span of architecture really does range from office block(5) to kampong, from water tower to temple, and more importantly, that all these can inform and hone each other without reducing the world to homogeneous porridge; that place, local climate and culture can have a real impact on architecture without being reduced to components of kitsch.

This round of awards furthers and helps deepen these critical perceptions. The jury rightly believes that the messages given by the premiated projects 'are of universal relevance and constitute an important contribution that the architecture of the Muslim societies of today' can make to architecture and societies.

1 The jury was Mohammed Arkoun, Professor of Islamic Thought at the Sorbonne, Paris; Nayyar Ali Dada, Pakistani architect; Darmawan Prawirohardjo, Indonesian architect; Peter Eisenman, American architect; Charles, Jencks, American architect; Mehmet Konuralp, Turkish architect; Luis Monreal, Spanish historian; Ismail Serageldin, Egyptian architect, vice-president of the World Bank; Alvaro Siza, Portuguese architect.

2 In 1992. The Awards have been given every three years since 1980. During that time, over 1600 projects have been considered and 69 premiated. Any building made for a Islamic community anywhere is eligible, though naturally most are in Muslin countries.

The prize money of US$500 000 is divided between projects according to need and merit. Not only architects benefit: depending on the scheme, the principal generators, from clients to masons, are recognised. The scheme is unique in its rigour. Projects (which must have been in use for at least three years) are proposed to the jury, which makes a shortlist. Each shortlisted scheme is visited by a technical assessor to judge its performance in use. The jury makes its final choice in light of the assessors' reports. This time, there were 422 nominations, of which 22 were examined in situ.

3 Selma al-Radi and Charles Moore quoted in AR October 1992 p50.

4 Ali Shuaibi 'Why Isn't Good Architecture Being Built'. Paper written in connection with the 1995 awards.

5 The Menara Mesiniaga office tower for IBM in Kuala Lumpur (p70; also AR February 1993, p26) is the first high-rise building and the first commercial office block to be premiated.)

GREAT MOSQUE AND REDEVELOPMENT OF OLD CITY CENTRE, RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA 

Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, has expanded 100-fold since 1940, when it was a little fortress town. It is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world today, with a population of over three million. Naturally, in the process of this huge expansion, the old centre of the city has been neglected. The traditional local building techniques of the Najdi district (adobe walls and roofs of tamarisk trunks plastered with mud) have been forgotten, and so has the climatically appropriate pattern of spaces that resulted from such construction. Instead, the city has been overwhelmed by a wave of air-conditioned steel and glass buildings in a range of international styles.

The Qasr al-Hokm Development Programme was set up by the Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) to revitalise the old core. The second phase (completed in 1992) involved the construction of the Great Mosque and the Palace of Justice as well as various commercial buildings. Designed by Jordanian architect Rasem Badran, the complex includes squares and streets, arcades, gates and towers as well as part of the old city wall. Badran wanted to relate to Najdi architecture without copying it - to generate urban patterns that relate to patterns of society, and to take advantage of traditional urban devices for generating shade and cooling breezes. Materials are constrained (limestone walls and granite pavements) and street furniture is simple and unobtrusive.

The mosque is set into the matrix, and is supposed to recreate the notion of the place of worship as an intimate part of the urban fabric. Squares are aligned on the qibla, so that they can be brought into use when the congregation overflows from the prayer hall on Fridays and feast days. Inside, the mosque is built on a 9x9m grid (roughly the length of a tamarisk tree). Above the column heads are openings for natural light and ventilation. Unobtrusive air conditioning units on the roof add cooling in very hot times.

The jury hailed the 'reinterpretation' of traditional Najdi architecture and the handling of the open courtyards as demonstrating 'a deep understanding of the culture of the area'.

KAEDI REGIONAL HOSPITAL

Kaedi is on the southern border of Mauritania, not far from the Senegal River. The latest part of its hospital (completed in 1989) serves the remote Gorgol province with 120 new beds which have been accommodated in a new complex that is extremely innovative, beautiful and appropriate.

The new work stems from research conducted in the area by the Association pour le Developpement naturel d'une Architecture et d'un Urbanisme Africain (ADAUA). After two years of experiments, Fabrizio Carola, assisted by Birahim Niang, evolved techniques for building in brick, which is not normally a local material. The bricks could be made with local soils and fired in nearby kilns. Using new geometries, they could be erected without centring and shuttering, and the whole process was, as ADAUA had hoped, both low-cost and replicable in other public buildings in the area.

The jury was practically ecstatic in its description: 'The architects created ribbed structures, pointed vaults and new shapes to match the needs of the various parts of the building ... The unfolding petals of the organic plan are not only beautiful but functional'. They offer shaded, naturally ventilated wards for the patients, places where the families of patients can wait in the shade and open courts for social engagement and chat.

Daylight is introduced to the wards by glass bricks built into the roofs. Interiors are plastered with locally fired lime (except for the circulation areas where the bricks are left exposed). External render is cement mortar. Cement, which is imported, is used to make screeds for the floor tiles and seems to have been one of the few sources of trouble. The technical assessor reported that parts of the floors have had to be replaced, and that there is minor cracking in the domes.

But these are small things. The jury was convinced that 'the overall effect is memorable, far removed from the projects that imitate the vaulted and domed structures made famous by the late Hassan Fathy. This is not a copy. This is an outstanding original, a lasting contribution to the art of building with brick structures'.

MENARA MESINIAGA, KUALA LUMPUR

The Menara Mesiniaga tower by Kenneth Yeang in Kuala Lumpur is the local headquarters of IBM and has already appeared in these pages (AR February 1993). The tower has three distinct parts: bottom, middle and top. On top of a green base, the middle section rises with spiralling open garden terraces to the top floor which has a swimming pool and sunroof. Ventilation is both natural and by air-conditioning, with the shaded terraces acting as cooling devices and generators of oxygen.

The technical assessor noted that 'despite its its many achievements Menara Mesiniaga is not problem free. Due to the high level of humidity, some leakage and rusting of materials can be observed, especially on the flat roofs'. Nevertheless, the jury premiated Yeang for 'having designed a meaningful tall building in a tropical climate. Eschewing the box-like curtain-wall structures so common in corporate office buildings ... it raises the kind of architectural debate in which the corporate world generally, and the Muslim world more specifically, can fruitfully engage'. The jury was impressed by the building as an example of bioclimatic architecture - the exploration of low-energy contemporary types of buildings for tropical countries. 'Instead of a typically authoritarian and introverted statement of a multinational corporation, the IBM tower is a robust, informal and open expression of an emerging technology.'

KHUDA-KI-BASTI SCHEME, HYDERABAD, PAKISTAN

Hyderabad in the Indus valley was the capital of Sind, and once a prosperous city. It continues to be a vital centre, but, because of its very liveliness, it attracts thousands of poor peasants in the hope of doing at least a little better than the often less-than-subsistence life they have in the countryside. As a result, there has been (as in many cities of the Muslim world) a huge rise in urban homelessness and an explosion of unplanned slums. Site and services schemes are mainly appropriated by the middle class, so the very poor must either sleep on the streets or struggle for shelter without tenure in squatter camps. The Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) has set up a scheme to try to help the very poor. It is based on the ways in which squatter settlements grow incrementally, but will offer permanent ownership in a planned settlement.

The site is Khuda-ki-Basti (Allah's settlement), a flat place near the road from Hyderabad to Karachi. Poor families arriving in Hyderabad can ask to join the scheme, in which case they are required to stay in a reception area for 15 days. During this time, they are screened and instructed, and they have to make a down payment of about US$5, for which they are allocated an unserviced site. (The full cost of the developed plot - US$50 - will be paid off in monthly instalments over eight years.) Within two weeks of getting a plot, a family must start to build its house, or it has to leave. It can build anything, and the usual way of starting is to make a jhuggi, a makeshift shelter of reeds, wood or even cardboard. Slowly, more permanent materials take their place: brick, block, tin sheets and so on, some of the houses even grow to two storeys. There is a septic tank for each four houses from which water is recycled by pumps for agriculture. Over 70 per cent of houses have individual water connections; the rest have convenient access to stand-pipes. Electricity is supplied.

Monthly income of the inhabitants ranges from Rs500-1000 ($2.6-5.2), with the poorest taking up 20 per cent of the population. The jury's decision was based on the scheme's 'sensitive participatory process that reaches the unreached'.

ARANYA COMMUNITY HOUSING, INDORE, INDIA

In 1983, the Vastu-Shilpa foundation was asked to plan a new township in Aranya, some 6km from the centre of Indore on the Delhi-Bombay road. Instead of adapting the placeless rigid grid layout common in site and services schemes, the planners decided to divide the 85 hectare site into six sectors that converge on the spine of the central business district. Within the residential districts the houses (each with a courtyard at the back) cluster in groups of 10. Paved open spaces and paths connect the clusters to the spine which includes shopping, offices and some housing. Every 20 houses have a septic tank and water is provided to the whole area from three new local reservoirs. Electricity goes overhead to the higher income groups, underground to the poorer.

Different levels of prosperity are accommodated. The poorest are in the middle of each sector with richer families on the central spine or at the periphery of the groups. In B.V. Doshi's demonstration houses (a group of 80), the people build their own houses in brick, stone or cement, with the poorest starting with no more than a plinth, or a site with a service core. Families make down payments based on their average income, paying off the balance monthly. The poorest families pay a two-rupee monthly service charge. Though Doshi's demonstration units offer the possibility of endless variation, few of the houses made outside the demonstration area follow his suggested patterns.

'Perhaps more important than the design goals,' remarked the jury, 'are the social goals that it promotes. By creating common spaces where Muslims, Hindus, Jains and others in these neighbourhoods can mix, the project promotes co-operation, neighbourliness, tolerance, and cohesive social relationships'.

RECONSTRUCTION OF HAFSlA QUARTER II, TUNIS

The Hafsia Quarter on the east side of the old city (medina) of Tunis, was once the Jewish area. Under the French protectorate, the wealthy moved out and the dense, intricate fabric decayed to such an extent that large slum clearance and reconstruction projects were undertaken. The last of these was launched in 1967 by the independent government, but it caused so much popular opposition that a much more sympathetic approach was adopted. The Association de Sauvegarde la Medina de Tunis (ASM) was established was set up to study and rehabilitate the old fabric. The first phase of the ASM's activities was started in 1972 and received an Aga Khan Award in 1983 (AR October 1983 p99). It attempted to maintain the scale of the old city and introduced a new covered souk that linked its two parts. But though the project got its award, the master jury then described the result as 'flawed' in detail and socially because it did not cater for the poorest members of society.

It appears that the hopes of the 1983 jury that 'subsequent phases of the programme will build on the experience gained' have been realised. This year's jury gave the award to the new part for 'having revived the socio-economic basis of the old medina while respecting its unique scale and texture. The Hafsia district is once more a vibrant locus ... Institutional success, community involvement, financial and economic viability, excellent public-private partnership and a sensitive resettlement programme for the displaced make Hafsia a success worthy of widespread study'.

In detail, the technical assessor drew attention to the way in which low-technology construction methods (still concrete frames with rendered block infill) were used throughout by local unskilled labour - except for the restoration parts. This time, it appears that financial arrangements have been better worked out, with the more prosperous encouraged to rehabilitate their own housing and vacant sites sold to provide loans for the needy. Problems are those of success: the beginnings of traffic congestion and the arrival of developers who have begun to convert some residential property to commercial uses.

RESTORATION OF BUKHARA OLD CITY

Bukhara is an ancient city in the deserts of central Asia near where the Silk Road from China crosses the once mighty Amudar'ya (Oxus) river as it flows north from the Hindu Kush to what remains of the Aral Sea. Between 1226, when it was sacked by Genghis Khan, and the eighteenth century, when the sea routes from Asia to Europe became reliable, Bukhara became immensely wealthy. It became part of the Tsarist empire in the middle of the nineteenth century, and after the Revolution, it was (forceably) incorporated into the USSR. Now it is the capital of a province of the independent republic of Uzbekistan.

For all its sometimes violent history, Bukhara's riches remain immense. It still has 500 monuments within its walls: madrasas, mosques, caravanserais, markets, mausoleums, old houses, hammams and the huge Ark citadel. Now, the republic of Uzbekistan and the local municipality have joined forces to restore as much of the old city as possible. About 15 per cent of the principal monuments have been preserved so far and infrastructure is being improved, with a new sewage system, the provision of water and electricity and paving many of the streets and alleys to keep down the dust. New uses have been introduced to the area within the walls (though one madrasa continues to teach Arabic and Koranic studies, others have been converted into craft centres, ateliers and galleries, helping to revive craftsmanship in the area, which had suffered under the Soviets). The jury gave the award for re-incorporating 'the old city as a vibrant, living social and economic part of contemporary Bukhara while remaining faithful to the scale and texture of the old, and for adhering to high technical standards for restoration'.

But there remains some unease about restoration methods which the technical assessor describes as 'adequate'. Under the USSR, although mud bricks and glazed tiles were used, an awful lot of concrete was put into some of the brick monuments of Uzbekistan. This has moved differently to the masonry, causing alarm about some of the buildings (particularly in Samarkand) which were treated in the 1960s. But the programme at Bukhara will last a long time, and lessons are being learned all the while.

CONSERVATION OF OLD SANA'A, YEMEN

Sana'a has been an important centre in south-western Arabia for nearly 2000 years. Up to the end of the Yemeni civil war in 1969 the city had been closed to outsiders for two centuries, its almost unique multistorey buildings protected behind mud walls. But once Sana'a was opened to foreign influences, the city became subject to the threat of development from Arabian peninsula's oil boom. Since the early '80s, a campaign to restore and upgrade the city has been in action under the aegis of the General Organisation for the Preservation of the Historic Cities of Yemen (GOPHCY) which attracted the support of UNESCO and UNDP and funding and technical assistance from individual foreign governments.

Using technical studies so funded, the Yemeni government has been organising water supplies and sewerage and a paving programme which has already covered half the city's streets and alleys with bands of black basalt and white limestone. As a result, there is much less dust and markets have been made more accessible to vehicular traffic, revitalising the city's economy. Many individual buildings have been restored: the first was the seventeenth-century Dar al-Jadid, now the headquarters of GOPHCY. Other old buildings have been converted into a women's technical school, art and craft galleries, hotels and guest houses. And throughout the city, GOPHCY has encouraged owners to renovate their own houses. Work on the mud walls of the city started in 1987 and continues, as does the rest of the programme, through which a pool of skilled local labour has been set up. As the technical assessor remarked: 'GOPHCY still has many problems to solve: mainly traffic congestion, pollution and rubbish disposal.'

GOPHCY was praised by the jury 'for having successfully incorporated the efforts of public and private sectors, local and foreign bodies, individuals and groups to conserve ... one of the jewels of the Muslim architectural and urban heritage. The focus on streets and infrastructure, as well as gardens and individual buildings, is noteworthy in an enterprise that confronts a living city and its rapidly evolving socio-economic structure'.

RE-FORESTATION PROGRAMME OF METU, ANKARA, TURKEY

The Middle East Technical University (METU) was set up in Ankara during the mid 1950s. The Turkish government donated a very large site on the brown arid hills that ring the city and about this time, it became clear that the Turkish capital was beginning to be asphyxiated by pollution, trapped over it by the hills. A policy of planting was evolved to combat erosion and pollution. No less than 4500 hectares of the university's grounds were set aside for landscaping and afforestation. Of this, 3100 hectares are devoted to trees that do not need irrigation; 800 hectares are irrigated and form a landscaped network of paths in the university and 500 hectares are lakes and ponds.

A million trees a year have been planted since 1961, and though there are many pines and cedars, the greater proportion is deciduous: oak, poplar, almond and plum. The programme of re-introducing a once indigenous flora has proved extraordinarily successful. The fauna has burgeoned with numerous wolves, rabbits, foxes and turtles as well as birds. Further, the technical assessor claims that the programme has changed the climate of the city, helping to temper the dry summers and severe winters. Ankara is now less dry, less polluted and less humid'.

Improvements are likely to continue, as neighbouring users see the success of what may be the world's largest man-made forest eco-system in an urban area. The jury suggested that 'the scale of the programme challenges conventional thinking about "greening the city" with a few small neighbourhood parks, or even large public open spaces'.

Problems have occurred with forest fires, litter and public access and are now beginning to emerge with trees that are passing maturity, but these are no different from those experienced in any national forest park.

ALLIANCE FRANCO-SENEGALAISE

Kaolack is a provincial town 160km south east of Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Its new Alliance Franco-Senegalaise centre acts both as a means of spreading understanding of French language and culture and as a community centre. The architect, anthropologist Patrick Dujarric, decided to adapt local custom and separate the individual elements, dividing them by open courts.

The principal block contains the exhibition space, and study, audio-visual and press rooms, offices and stores. It has two main courtyards, one of which has been made as a shaded study area. The smaller cluster houses four classrooms, grouped round a small, planted shady court. The third element is an open-air theatre. The structures are made in what are now traditional ways, with cement block walls supporting structural cement roofs. Dujarric elaborated on tradition by using PVC pipes filled with concrete as columns and by introducing decorative terrazzo floors with local stones as colouring agents. Cross ventilation, shading devices and electric ceiling fans keep the indoor temperature comfortable without artificial cooling even in the middle of the day.

But, of course, what amazes about the complex is its decoration. As an anthropologist, Dujarric had explored the form and meaning of many traditional motifs in a range of local crafts. The startling outcome of his studies is painted on to the surfaces of his simple structures. The result, says the technical assessor, is not pastiche, nor is it an imitative re-creation of motifs - it is the integration of art into the very structure of architecture'.

Agreeing, the jury used the very French post-Structuralist literary argument that the complex 'raises important questions about the role of ornament in the age of media. It integrates ornament with architectural design as a "text" for users to interact with, to endow with their own references and connotations'.

MOSQUE OF THE TURKISH GRAND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, ANKARA, TURKEY

Turkey is a secular state, so at first it seems odd that the Grand National Assembly should want a mosque at all. In fact, the building is not large, for though the Assembly is in the middle of Ankara, the site is heavily guarded and difficult to leave or arrive at casually. So the mosque has been designed as a prayer hall for up to 450 MPs and civil servants.

The size, the secularity of the state and the need to complement the Assembly building rather than compete with it, all called for a re-assessment of the iconography and form of the mosque as a type. The basic paid is simple: a rectangular prayer hall is flanked by a triangular forecourt and a triangular garden. The prayer hall has a pyramidal roof through the beams of which indirect light falls. But the main source of light in the hall is the totally glass qibla(1), with the glass mihrab(2) projecting towards the waterfall, pool and sunken garden. This is an astonishing move, as both qibla and mihrab are conventionally opaque and as the technical assessor remarked it 'completely transforms the act of prayer'.

Other traditional elements have been transformed. For instance, instead of a minaret, the architects have put two superimposed balconies a little above ground level in the south west corner of the forecourt. A tall pine has been planted nearby.

The jury commented. 'By boldly challenging all the conventional conceptions of layout and architectural vocabulary, while remaining totally respectful of the requirements of prayer, this remarkable building opens the door for others to invent a new architectural language for the mosques of tomorrow rather than mechanically copying the achievements of the past.'

LANDSCAPING INTEGRATION: SOEKARNO-HATTA AIRPORT, JAKARTA, INDONESIA

The first phase of Jakarta's international airport was finished in 1985; the second in 1992. In both, Paul Andreu and his team have attempted to break down the scale of the complex by articulating the volumes in ways that vaguely resemble the traditional building methods of central Java. Big overhanging roofs are supported on closely spaced thin metal tubes, in a way that perhaps recalls bamboo construction. In the first phase air-conditioning was obviated after check-in, so the lounges and connecting spaces could be fully open to the landscape. But in the second phase, the clients wanted much more artificial cooling, so there are windows along the corridors and pavilions.

The technical assessor commented on the 'lush courtyard gardens [which] continue to portray ... an enchanting interpretation of the natural landscape of central Java'. The jury liked the project principally because it 'introduces landscaping on the air side of the terminal as well as the land side ... The green areas are instrumental in creating a meaningful relationship between interior and exterior space, and providing a human scale and visual relief in a complex facility'. It suggests that 'landscaping can be more effectively included in the designs of other building types, from housing to offices to shopping malls'.