Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

Shelters built from earth-filled plastic sacks joined together with barbed wire and plaster would hardly be the obvious choice to win an Islamic architecture prize. But for the judges of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture - as rooky architects at the American University of Sharjah learned this week - there is a lot more to Muslim monuments than minarets.Last year's winners of the triennial award included the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, a primary school in Burkina Faso and the earthquake-proof sandbag shelters of US-based Nader Khalili.