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

When the 1970s oil boom fueled a construction frenzy in the Islamic world, Prince Karim Aga Khan watched in dismay. Anonymous modernist buildings started sprouting across the land, and his society, he felt, was suffering from a poverty of abundance. Many of the structures were bereft of style and cultural context. It is therefore not surprising that the Aga Khan, 61, a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed and spiritual leader of 15 million Ismaili Muslims, found a new calling.

En presencia del Aga Khan hicieron entrega de los premios de arquitectura que llevan el nombre del líder espiritual ismaelita.

Your Excellency,
Honourable members of the Municipal Council of the City of Granada,
Distinguished Guests,

Your Excellency,
Honourable members of the Municipal Council of the City of Granada,
Distinguished Guests,

Your Majesties,
Mr. President,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,

Los Reyes respaldaron ayer en Granada la Fundación del Legado Andalusí, el proyecto cultural ideado en 1995 por la Junta para promover la ruta arquitectónica y cultural de la herencia andalusí. Las dudas sobre cuál debía ser su estructura han impedido hasta ahora su funcionamiento regular. Don Juan Carlos señaló a la civilización arábigoandaluza como "el germen de la Europa" de la que los españoles son "miembros y socios". Los Reyes asistieron por la tarde en el Generalife a la entrega de los prestigiosos premios de arquitectura creados por el agá Jan, amigo de ambos, en 1977.

Civil strife, expanding populations, poverty, urban drift, hegemonic claims of traditional orthodoxies and monopolistic tendencies in electronic media can be destructive of world culture and are dangers to tomorrow's human and physical environment, but they need not overwhelm every society.

Seven winners of the 1998 Aga Khan Award for Architecture were announced yesterday.

They range from a private house to a palace and from a leper hospital to a state parliament building. They also include two imaginative schemes for regenerating an old town and an area of slums and a building to house an arts council.

The ceremony took place yesterday at The Alhambra and Generalife Gardens in Granada, Spain, in the presence of the King and Queen of Spain and the Aga Khan and the Begum Aga Khan.