Geneva, Switzerland – The Aga Khan Award for Architecture has announced the members of its Steering Committee for the 2023-2025 cycle.
The Steering Committee governs the Award and is chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan.
Newly appointed members of the Steering Committee are:
- Meisa Batayneh, Principal Architect, Founder, maisam architects and engineers, Amman, Jordan
- Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Professor in the departments of French and Philosophy, Columbia University, New York, USA
- Lesley Lokko, Founder & Director, African Futures Institute, Accra, Ghana
- Gülru Necipoğlu, Director and Professor, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
- Hashim Sarkis, Dean, School of Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
- Sarah M. Whiting, Dean, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
Farrokh Derakhshani is the Director of the Award.
A new committee is constituted each cycle to establish the eligibility criteria for project submissions, provide thematic direction in response to emerging priorities and issues, and to develop plans for the future of the Award. One of its most important tasks is to select an independent Master Jury which, in turn, selects award recipients from projects nominated.
“The Award has been most effective when at the forefront of identifying key issues facing the built environment and selecting relevant projects to address these concerns,” said Princess Zahra Aga Khan, at the Steering Committee’s inaugural meeting. “The challenges of climate change and environmental degradation are today intertwined with geo-political shifts, migration, natural disasters, and rapid urbanisation. I would therefore urge members of the Steering Committee to emphasise in this cycle, infrastructure, climate change as well as the important role of civil society actors in shaping how we live, work and play.”
The announcement of the Steering Committee coincides with that of the identification of projects for the 16th Award Cycle. Farrokh Derakhshani noted that, to be eligible for consideration in the 2025 Award cycle, projects must be completed between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2023 and should have been in use for at least one full year.
Further details of the project submission process can be found here.
