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Speech by His Highness The Aga Khan V at the Aga Khan Architectural Awards held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

September 15, 2025

Bismi’l-lahi’r-rahmani’r-rahim

Your Excellency Adylbek Kasymaliev, Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers,
Head of the Presidential Administration,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,

It is my distinct pleasure to welcome all of you to this Award ceremony in this beautiful venue.

It is almost 50 years since our late father established the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. I say “our father” because my brothers are here – not because I’m referring to myself with the royal “we”. In the decades since, the Award has recognised dozens of innovative creators and buildings around the world. It has influenced international discourse, promoting new ideas and solutions, and creating more projects today conceived, designed and built with people as their priority.

The Award ceremonies were ones our father looked forward to tremendously. And I would like to thank all the people who worked with him over the many decades to make this Award such a vital part of his legacy.

This is also an occasion to mark 25 years of partnership between the Aga Khan Development Network and the Kyrgyz Republic. Kyrgyzstan’s recent growth and development have been remarkable. Under President Zhaparov, the Government has taken great strides to translate hard-won economic success into a better quality of life for citizens, through expanded access to public services and targeted support for vulnerable households.

The government has expanded green spaces, established new learning environments to foster creativity and innovation, and built dignified housing for civil servants, especially those working in remote areas. All of these are significant investments not just in physical infrastructure, but in human well-being.

We should all pay tribute to President Zhaparov for his leadership in advancing the international Mountain Agenda, and spearheading the country’s Jashyl Muras (Green Heritage) campaign, an ambitious initiative to safeguard Kyrgyzstan’s precious natural landscapes through conservation, reforestation and sustainable development. Kyrgyzstan’s ecosystems are vital for the entire Central Asian region, and it makes these efforts all the more significant.

Kyrgyzstan has a rich cultural heritage. The country’s musical traditions, passed down from generation to generation, have contributed to the world’s musical legacy. Bishkek is home to one of the most prestigious centres devoted to musical education, the Abdraev School, which maintains old bonds of collaboration with the Aga Khan Music Programme.

I am happy that we’re partnering with the Government to build a new Music Centre at the Abdraev School site. We hope the new centre, equipped with the state-of-art facilities for music education and interpretation, and an auditorium, will be a symbol of excellence and will support the Government’s aim to leverage architecture to celebrate and preserve the nation’s heritage.

Our work on a new music centre adds to the long history of our investments in this country. For more than two decades, AKDN agencies have established and operated strong national institutions, like the Kyrgyz Investment and Credit Bank, in support of national development priorities. Last year alone, the Aga Khan School in Osh, the University of Central Asia and the Aga Khan Foundation served more than 100,000 learners across this country.

Through our collaboration with the Government and our partners, and I’m delighted to see many here today, we will continue to help individuals develop skills and create opportunities for themselves, for their communities and for this beautiful country.

One of the reasons that our father was so passionate about architecture was its power to improve the lives of the poor and marginalised, which is why this Award places such emphasis on buildings that address social and environmental needs. To quote my father: “I believe profoundly that architecture is not just about building. It is a means of improving people’s quality of life. At its best, it should mirror the plurality of cultural traditions and the diverse needs of communities… Each generation must leave for its successors a wholesome and sustainable social and physical environment.”

Buildings have power. They can raise living standards, inspire reverence and awe, and solve – or create – problems for generations to come. In this most recent cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, for instance, we have projects that cool soaring temperatures in Iran, that mitigate climate displacement in Bangladesh, and that promote inclusivity and pluralism in Egypt.

Today, more than ever, with the vast range of materials and techniques that humans have invented, great architecture has the power to answer directly to the most acute development challenges, and to create the inclusive, safe, dignified world that we want for everyone.

One of the biggest threats that we face globally is of course climate change. We know that every human activity will now need to adapt to it. Here, architecture offers great hope. Humans have always designed their buildings as a response to the climate. Today, with the climate more volatile than ever, architects have a great responsibility, and an opportunity, to use their creativity to design the buildings that will buffer that volatility and protect us all – and especially the most vulnerable – from climatic risk. This quality – flexibility in the face of the unexpected – was at the heart of the jury’s concerns in this cycle of the award.

Climate change is far from the only development challenge architecture has to meet. As I said, we look to our built environment to raise the quality of life for all, and to resolve issues of social as well as environmental justice. It is not an exaggeration to say that affordability of our housing, ease of access to green space, education, health and cultural heritage all hinge on the creativity of our architects and the wisdom of our civic planners. Creative designs that centre these priorities can widen access, both from the top down – by giving governments more and better options to commission – and from the bottom up – by giving people less expensive and better options to build themselves. There is no one recipe for excellence, because every country has its own unique challenges, but the qualities this Award is looking for will always endeavour to respond to those challenges in some manner.

In today’s era of waning trust, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture’s judging process remains an oasis of rigour. The judging process is uncompromising. It draws on extensive documentation, interviews and site visits to ensure that no detail is overlooked. The Award examines each project meticulously, looking to recognise those that promote values of equity, participation, environmental sustainability and good governance, while transcending their given constraints – whether economic, social, ecological, political, or technological. Some of the projects will only reveal the full extent of their impact in the years to come, but we are confident that all of them will do so.

Finally, I would like to thank all of you for being part of this ceremony, and for honouring these worthy winners, all of whom have shown us once again the power of architecture to answer the development challenges of this age and, in doing so, elevate us all. Let us continue to ensure that what we build reflects not only our creativity, but also our compassion, our responsibility and our shared vision for a just and sustainable world.

Thank you.