2 Bangladeshi projects win Aga Khan architecture award

 Two Bangladeshi projects have won this year’s Aga Khan Award for Architecture.  

The projects are a mosque in Dhaka and a community centre in Gaibandha.  

Awaidha Murshed Al Marar, chairman of Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport of the United Arab Emirates announced the winners’ name at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Architect Marina Tabassum won the award for designing Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka and architect Kashef Chowdhury for Chowdhury Friendship Centre in Gaibandha.  

The $1 million prize is awarded every three years to honour architectural projects that address the needs of societies in which Muslims have a significant presence.

The mosque in Dhaka's Faridabad won recognition for pushing the boundaries of what a traditional religious space should look like, award director Farrokh Derakhshani said.
Local children are encouraged to play on the building’s bare modernist space, unusual for a mosque, as shifting sunlight splashes patterns onto the dark interior floor.

This year’s six winners also included a children’s library in Beijing and a pedestrian bridge in Tehran.

“Architecture can be a means of joining people. It is a way to showcase commonalities between the Muslim communities that exist in all regions of the world,” said Mohammed Al Asad, a member of the Award’s steering committee.
Superkilen, a series of public spaces in a deprived immigrant area of the Danish capital Copenhagen, was designed as an outdoor meeting place for people of 60 nationalities living in the area - including many refugees.
Islamic-themed sculptures and skateboard ramps are a feature of the urban park and Muslim women bring their children there to play on the swings.
“Of course there are tensions in Europe between the immigrant and host populations. This project is unique because it brings together all the different ... communities,” Asad said.

The winners were chosen by an independent jury of architectural experts appointed by the Aga Khan Foundation, named after the wealthy leader of the Ismaili branch of Shia Islam.
The award money will be split between the architecture firms and clients involved in the winning projects and will partly go toward outreach activities to spread design and building knowledge.
The 2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture winners:
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
Hutong 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.