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Awards help build bridges to Islam BLUEPRINTS FOR UNDERSTANDING-2001-11-25

Date: 
Sunday, 2001, November 25
Location: 
Source: 
Edmonton Journal
Author: 
Alan Kellogg

Earlier this month, the eighth triennial Aga Khan Awards for Architecture were presented at the Citadel of Aleppo, Syria. To be sure, the awards, like any architectural prizes, are not the stuff of headlines, especially in the West outside the Ismaili community and industry circles. And yet, it's interesting how these things link up these days, how a ceremony far away reaches across the cultural and geographical ethers, from West Africa to Southeast Asia, Aswan to Edmonton.

It seems particularly timely to celebrate any small stabs at international co-operation at the moment, particularly those endeavours that join the Islamic and non-Islamic orbits. And when it comes to architecture, one only needs to walk down Jasper Avenue to appreciate that we could stand some illumination and inspiration vis-a-vis our own built environment.

Like other major prizes of the realm, the Aga Khan Awards (the world's richest, at over $750,000) do honour excellence in splashy, big-budget projects, private and public.

The Datai Hotel, a gorgeous five-star establishment set on a Malaysian resort island, is among the nine winners for 2001. With a budget of roughly $55 million, the hotel's 85 luxury rooms have been broken into four blocks surrounding a swimming pool. The jury lionized the Australian architectural firm Kerry Hill not only for its architectural rigour, but also for its sensitivity to the nearby untouched rainforest, sea coast and local traditions.

The Chairman's Award is a lifetime achievement prize, won this cycle by Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, a huge presence and innovator in Asian circles, if largely unsung elsewhere. A mere glance at his parliament buildings in Colombo, an asymmetrical structure with overhangs and copper roofs set on an island, testifies mightily to his vision.

But what separates the Aga Khans from many other awards is its special emphasis on smaller community projects that actually enhance the everyday lives of the everyday people who live with the work.

The Moroccan village of Ait Iktel, another winner this month, is a case in point.

Located in the remote High Atlas Mountains, the women of the town of 2,000, members of the Ghoujdama Berber tribe, spent long hours hauling water from faraway wells, often in the evening darkness. Like many of the country's 30,000 villages, Ait Iktel survives via the labour of family members elsewhere, who send money back home. One such emigre formed an association with others to raise funds and arrive at a redevelopment plan.

By now, for the price of a medium-sized house in Riverbend, the village has a safe local water supply, electricity at night, a health centre, ambulance and a new school and library that teaches Arabic, French and the local Berber dialect. Freed from the yoke of water-carrying, women and girls are attending school for the first time and have set up a textile workshop.

All work has been based on traditional methods or the urban experience of returning immigrants. A bridge crossing a new water canal is a source of regional pride, utilizing inlaid stonework in a variety of patterns. Rather than the typical top-down approach employed by many outside aid agencies, the entire project was a testament to local control, planning, consultation and construction.

In awarding the prize, the jury cited Ait Iktel for its new approach to development, environmental conservation and improvement of living conditions, made possible by the co-operation of emigrant villagers and those who stayed behind.

As the Aga Khan observes in his remarks for this year's prizes, "one of the things the Award has tried to respond to (is) how society causes change, not how architects cause change, and it has tried to help societies to improve the processes of change."

Aziz Bootwalla is an architect with the Edmonton firm Kassian Kennedy, and a member of the local Ismaili community. Primarily concerned with retail projects in Canada and the U.S., he's currently project architect for the South Edmonton Common complex and has worked closely on the Oliver Village redevelopment of the railway lands.

While Islamic architecture doesn't play a direct role in his work, he says the Aga Khan Award provides inspiration and a chance to reflect on work throughout the world, especially from areas largely forgotten.

"The basic principals of Islamic architecture can be applied anywhere. It provides tremendous opportunities to bring geometry, a sense of the landscape, to the work, the (platform) to experiment with the physical space. Enhancing the built environment is what it's all about."

There's another point this year, that connects everyone.

"In the midst of what's happening, things like the awards allow people to see the rich, much more realistic aspects of the Islamic world. It gives a different vision of Islam to the West. People read about this and develop a more sympathetic view."

It couldn't hurt.


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