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

Standing in the heart of Roman Constantinople, next to Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar and its open air market of secondhand books and manuscripts, the Beyazit State Library demonstrates that a 19th-century Ottoman edifice can retain its character and still serve the public on a daily basis.

Your Excellency The President, Your Excellencies, Honourable Ministers, Distinguished Guests.
Three years ago the first Aga Khan Architectural Awards were announced in the fabled Shalimar Gardens of Lahore.

Mowlana Hazar Imam and President Evren of Turkey on September 4, 1983 presented the 1983 Aga Khan Award for Architecture to 11 outstanding projects located in nine countries from Yugoslavia to Malaysia (See the photographs and project descriptions in the present issue of AFRICA ISMAILI). The winners share US $500,000 of prizes from the fund established by the largest architecture award programme in the world.

In 1980, the first Aga Khan Award for Architecture will be presented. Prior to that, five seminars are to be held to discuss various criteria and categories for the Award, as well as some of the other mundane aspects of its organization. Though this is the second seminar chronologically, it is the first one to be held in a country of the Islamic world, and I therefore attach particular regard to its participants and importance to its subject matter.