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September 2, 2025
A Tapestry of Hope: The 2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture
Since its inception in 1977, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) has set itself apart from other international prizes. Bestowed every three years, it recognizes projects that go beyond aesthetics to transform communities, safeguard heritage, and address the urgent challenges of our time. With a prize fund of $1 million, it is one of the world’s most influential awards, celebrating not only architects but also municipalities, clients, artisans, and communities who make architecture possible.
The 2025 cycle, its 16th edition, shines a light on seven groundbreaking projects across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Each reflects the Award’s guiding values of transcendence, pluralism, and progress, reminding us that architecture can be both a response to urgent realities and an act of imagination for better futures.
In Bangladesh, a modular housing system designed with bamboo and steel connectors offers displaced communities a chance to rebuild with dignity. Lightweight, dismantlable, and affordable, it empowers families to construct homes within days, proving that survival architecture can carry grace and beauty.
In Inner Mongolia, China, a reclaimed-brick community center has redefined rural life. Organized around a circular courtyard, it accommodates everything from mahjong to art exhibitions, balancing local traditions with contemporary design. It is at once a cultural beacon and a catalyst for economic growth.
Egypt’s historic city of Esna has been reborn through subtle interventions that revived centuries-old structures and crafts. By weaving tourism with community-driven micro-enterprises, the project transformed decline into resilience, demonstrating how heritage can be both preserved and lived.
On Iran’s Hormuz Island, a constellation of colorful domes has created a new cultural and economic hub, connecting architecture to landscape and community. Meanwhile, in Tehran, the transformation of a metro entrance into a generous urban plaza has turned infrastructure into a monument of civic life.
In Pakistan, a vertical campus blends joyful facades with vocational training for disadvantaged youth, proving that architecture can be both pedagogical and empowering. And in Palestine, a multipurpose cultural hub in Bethlehem provides artisans and designers with a space for production, exchange, and resistance, positioning cultural creation as a form of collective strength.
Together, these seven projects illustrate how architecture, when rooted in empathy and ingenuity, can become a tapestry of hope—bridging past and future, local and global, necessity and imagination.
credits
_article written by Daniela Moreira da Silva
_images: Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Deed Studio
_film curated by Architecture Hunter
_project 1: Khudi Bari by Marina Tabassum Architects
_project 2: West Wusutu Village Community Centre, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, by Zhang Pengju
_project 3: Revitalisation of Historic Esna, by Takween Integrated Community Development
_project 4: The Arc at Green School, in Bali, by IBUKU / Elora Hardy
_project 5: Islamic Centre Nurul Yaqin Mosque, in Palu, Central Sulawesi, by Dave Orlando and Fandy Gunawan
_project 6: Microlibraries, in various cities, by SHAU / Daliana Suryawinata
_project 7: Majara Complex and Community Redevelopment, on Hormuz Island by ZAV Architects / Mohamadreza Ghodousi
_project 8: Jahad Metro Plaza, in Tehran, by KA Architecture Studio
_project 9: Khan Jaljulia Restoration, in Jaljulia, by Elias Khuri
_project 10: Campus Startup Lions, in Turkana, by Kéré Architecture
_project 11: Revitalisation of Lalla Yeddouna Square, in the medina of Fez, by Mossessian Architecture and Yassir Khalil Studio
_project 12: Vision Pakistan, in Islamabad, by DB Studios / Mohammad Saifullah Siddiqui
_project 13: Denso Hall Rahguzar Project, in Karachi, by Heritage Foundation of Pakistan / Yasmeen Lari
_project 14: Wonder Cabinet, in Bethlehem, by AAU Anastas
_project 15: The Ned Hotel, in Doha, by David Chipperfield Architects
_project 16: Shamalat Cultural Centre, in Riyadh, by Syn Architects / Sara Alissa, Nojoud Alsudairi
_project 17: Rehabilitation and Extension of Dakar Railway Station, in Dakar, by Ga2D
_project 18: Rami Library, by Han Tümertekin Design & Consultancy
_project 19: Morocco Pavilion Expo Dubai 2020, by Oualalou + Choi
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