Aga Khan Trust for Culture

His Highness Prince Rahim Aga Khan V is the 50th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, and the Chair of the Aga Khan Development Network. He is the eldest son of the late Prince Karim Aga Khan and succeeded his father in accordance with historical Shia Imami Ismaili tradition on 4 February 2025.

His Highness worked closely with his late father for over three decades, serving on the boards of many AKDN agencies. He has been particularly concerned with AKDN&rsquo;s drive to protect the environment and mitigate the effects of climate change. He has also given sustained attention to the work of AKDN and the Ismaili community institutions in addressing the needs of those living in the greatest poverty and supporting the improvement of their livelihoods through education, training and enterprise.

His Highness meets regularly with leaders of government, international organisations and civil society to strengthen their relations with the Ismaili Imamat and to advance AKDN&rsquo;s efforts to improve the lives of marginalised and vulnerable communities.

His Highness Prince Rahim Aga Khan V is the 50th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, and the Chair of the Aga Khan Development Network.

HIS HIGHNESS THE AGA KHAN

Sir David Adjaye OBE is recognised as a leading architect of his generation. In 2000, he founded Adjaye Associates, which now has offices in London, New York and Accra working on projects in the USA, UK, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. His largest project to date, the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened on the National Mall in Washington DC in the autumn of 2016.

Other prominent completed projects include the Idea Stores in London, which were credited with pioneering a new approach to library services (2005); the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO (2010); and the Sugar Hill mixed-use social housing scheme in Harlem, New York (2015). Ongoing projects include a new home for the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, the National Cathedral of Ghana in Accra, and the National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in London.

In 2017, Sir David was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen for services to Architecture, following the previous award of an OBE in 2007. The same year, he was recognised as one of the 100 most influential people of the year by TIME magazine. He has additionally received the Design Miami/Artist of the Year title in 2011, the Wall Street Journal Innovator Award in 2013 and the 2016 Panerai London Design Medal from the London Design Festival.

Sir David has held distinguished professorships at the Harvard, Princeton and Yale universities. He has also taught at the Royal College of Art, where he had previously studied, and at the Architectural Association School in London.

Sir David was a member of the 2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture Master Jury and served as a member of the Award Steering Committee in 2016.

Sir David Adjaye OBE is recognised as a leading architect of his generation.

David Adjaye OBE

Mohammad al-Asad is a Jordanian architect and architectural historian. He is the founding director of the Center for the Study of the Built Environment in Amman. Dr. al-Asad studied architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and history of architecture at Harvard University, before taking post-doctoral research positions at Harvard and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

He has taught at the University of Jordan, Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was Alan K. and Leonarda Laing Distinguished Visiting Professor. He was also an adjunct professor at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Dr. al-Asad has published in both Arabic and English on the architecture of the Islamic world, in books and academic and professional journals. He is the author of&nbsp;Old Houses of Jordan: Amman 1920-1950&nbsp;(1997) and&nbsp;Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism in the Middle East&nbsp;(2012); and co-author, with Ghazi Bisheh and Fawzi Zayadine, of&nbsp;The Umayyads: The Rise of Islamic Art&nbsp;(2000) and, with Sahel Al Hiyari and &Aacute;lvaro Siza, of&nbsp;Sahel Al Hiyari Projects&nbsp;(2005). He has also edited the proceedings of three Aga Khan Award for Architecture seminars:&nbsp;Shaping Cities: Emerging Models of Planning Practices&nbsp;(2016),&nbsp;Workplaces: The Transformation of Places of Production: Industrialization and the Built Environment in the Islamic World&nbsp;(2010) and (co-edited with Majd Musa)&nbsp;Architectural Journalism and Criticism: Global Perspectives&nbsp;(2007).

Dr. al-Asad has been a member of the board of directors of the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, part of the Royal Society for Fine Arts. He served as a project reviewer for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture during the 1989, 1995, 1998, 2004 and 2007 Award cycles, and was a member of the Steering Committee in 2010, 2013 and 2016.

Mohammad al-Asad is a Jordanian architect and architectural historian. 

Mohammad al-Asad

Francesco Bandarin is an architect and urban planner. He graduated in architecture from the Institute of Architecture of Venice (IUAV) and has a master&rsquo;s degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. From 1980 to 2016 he was Professor of Urban Planning and Conservation at IUAV.

Mr. Bandarin served as Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Secretary of the World Heritage Convention from 2000 to 2011, and as Assistant Director-General for Culture at UNESCO from 2010 until 2018. During this time he coordinated several important conservation projects in Cairo, Jerusalem, Angkor, Axum and Afghanistan, among many others, and encouraged reflection on urban conservation issues that led to the adoption of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape in 2011. As Assistant Director-General for Culture he was responsible for the management of six international treaties on heritage and for operational activities in the areas of tangible and intangible heritage.

Mr. Bandarin has served on numerous international juries and committees. In 2014, he was President of the Jury of the &ldquo;New Ideas&rdquo; prize of the Bordeaux Architectural Biennale, and President of the Jury of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2015, he was appointed President of the Jury of the First Shenzen Creative Design Award (SCDA); elected President of the Italian Association of Historic Cities (ANCSA); and appointed as a member of the Visiting Committee of the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles.

His recent publications include&nbsp;The Historic Urban Landscape: Managing Heritage in an Urban Century&nbsp;(2012) and&nbsp;Reconnecting the City: The Historic Urban Landscape Approach and the Future of Urban Heritage&nbsp;(2014), both co-authored with Ron van Oers. A forthcoming book, co-authored with Ana Roders, completes this series:&nbsp;Reshaping Urban Conservation: the Historic Urban Landscape Approach&nbsp;(2018). He was a member of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture Steering Committee in 2016.

Francesco Bandarin is an architect and urban planner. 

Francesco Bandarin

Hanif Kara is a practicing structural engineer and Professor in Practice of Architectural Technology at Harvard University&rsquo;s Graduate School of Design. He is co-founder of AKT II London, where his design-led approach and interest in innovative forms, sustainable construction and complex analysis methods have allowed him to work on many pioneering projects. Under his design leadership, the practice has won over 300 design awards including the RIBA Stirling Prize for Peckham Library in 2000, and for Sainsbury Laboratory in 2012, as well as the RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the UK Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010.

Professor Kara&rsquo;s career extends beyond structural engineering disciplines. In 2011 he became the first engineer to serve as a judge for the annual RIBA Stirling Prize. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Architecture Foundation in London, and currently serves on a number of infrastructure design panels for the design council CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment). From 2008 to 2011 he served as a commissioner for CABE, and as one of 15 members of the Design for London Advisory Group to the Mayor of London (2007- 2008). Professor Kara was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2007. In 2014, he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Professor Kara has published and lectured widely on issues of design, as well as editing the volumes Design Engineering (2008), Interdisciplinary Design: New Lessons from Architecture and Engineering (2012), and most recently, Design Engineering Refocused (2017) and Architecture &amp; Waste (2017). He was a member of the Steering Committee for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2016, served on the Award Master Jury in 2004, and was a project reviewer for the Award in 2007, 2010 and 2013.

Hanif Kara is a practicing structural engineer and Professor in Practice of Architectural Technology at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

 Hanif Kara

Kamil Merican is the founding partner of GDP Architects Malaysia, which has gained a reputation as one of Malaysia&rsquo;s leading design and architecture firms. Mr. Merican graduated in architecture from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and the Architectural Association in London.&nbsp;After graduating, he worked with Sir Terry Farrell and Sir Nicholas Grimshaw in London. In 1976, on his return to Malaysia, he taught in the faculty of architecture at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. As GDP&rsquo;s principal design partner, Mr. Merican has been involved in all the firm&rsquo;s major projects. The projects have won a number of awards, including 12 from PAM (the Malaysian Institute of Architects), a RIBA award (jointly with Foster + Partners), and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2007, for the University of Technology Petronas in Tronoh, Malaysia (also with Foster + Partners). Mr. Merican has served as a member of the steering committee for the Greater Kuala Lumpur Council since 2010. He remains active in architectural education, serving as an external examiner for the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Universiti Malaya. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Architecture at Universiti Malaya. Mr. Merican was a member of the 2013 Master Jury for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and a recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2007.

Kamil Merican is the founding partner of GDP Architects Malaysia, which has gained a reputation

Kamil Merican

Azim Nanji is currently Special Advisor to the Provost of the Aga Khan University, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa, a joint partnership between His Highness the Aga Khan and the Government of Canada. He has held many prestigious academic and administrative appointments, most recently as Senior Associate Director of the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University, where he was also lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies.&nbsp;From 1998 to 2008, Professor Nanji served as Director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. He has published numerous books and articles on religion, Islam and Ismailism.

Within the Aga Khan Development Network, he has served as a member of the task force for the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC) and Vice Chair of the Madrasa-based Early Childhood Education Programme in East Africa. He served as a member of the Steering Committee of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1998, 2001 and 2016.

Azim Nanji is Special Advisor to the Provost of the Aga Khan University and a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Centre for Pluralism.

Professor Azim Nanji

G&uuml;lru Necipoğlu earned her doctorate from Harvard University in 1986, where she has served as the Aga Khan Professor and Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture since 1993. She specialises in the arts and architecture of the pre-modern Islamic lands, with a focus on the Mediterranean world and artistic exchanges between the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires. Her studies have also addressed aesthetic interconnections with Byzantium and Renaissance Europe, pre-modern architectural practice and the role of ornament. She has mentored numerous students, who continue to transform the field.

Since 1993, Professor Necipoğlu has served as editor of Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World, the pre-eminent journal in the field, and its supplements. Her own publications include Architecture, Ceremonial and Power: The Topkapı Palace (1991), The Topkapı Scroll&ndash;Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture (1995), The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire (2005, 2011), Treasures of Knowledge: An Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library (1502/3-1503/4) (2 vols, 2019, co-editors C. Kafadar, C.H. Fleischer), The Arts of Ornamental Geometry: A Persian Compendium on Similar and Complementary Interlocking Figures (2017), A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, in the Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Art History (co-editor F.B Flood, 2017) and Histories of Ornament: From Global to Local (co-editor A. Payne, 2016).

Professor Necipoğlu is an elected member of the British Academy, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio in Vicenza, Italy. She was appointed Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge in 2013 and Guest Faculty Scholar at the Kunsthistorisches Institut of Florence in 2014.

In 2023, the Smithsonian awarded her The Freer Medal National Museum of Asian Art, which honours those &ldquo;who over the course of their career have contributed in a substantial way to the understanding of the arts of Asia&rdquo;.

Professor Necipoğlu served on the Steering Committee for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2016.

Gülru Necipoğlu has been Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Art at Harvard University since 1993.

 Gülru Necipoglu

Brigitte Shim is a principal of Shim-Sutcliffe Architects and a professor at the University of Toronto&rsquo;s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. Professor Shim and her partner A. Howard Sutcliffe founded their design practice Shim-Sutcliffe in 1994, enabling them to explore their shared interest and passion for the interrelated scales of architecture, landscape, furniture and fittings. To date, they have received 14 Governor General&rsquo;s Medals for Architecture and an American Institute of Architects National Honor Award, along with many other professional accolades for their built work.

At the University of Toronto, Professor Shim teaches core design studios, advanced design studios, and courses in the History and Theory of Landscape Architecture. Her visiting professorships include the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor at Yale University (2014, 2010, 2005) and (with Sutcliffe) the University of Auckland Distinguished Visitor Award from the university&rsquo;s National Institute for Creative Arts and Industries within the School of Architecture and Planning.

Professor Shim has lectured widely and participated in invited international design juries and symposia around the world. She has served on Canada&rsquo;s National Capital Commission Architectural Advisory Board for over a decade and is currently serving on Waterfront Toronto&rsquo;s Design Review Panel.

Brigitte Shim is a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (FRAIC), an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (Hon FAIA) and an elected member of the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA). In 2013, Brigitte Shim and A. Howard Sutcliffe were awarded the Order of Canada, along with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, &ldquo;for their contributions as architects designing sophisticated structures that represent the best of Canadian design to the world&rdquo;.

Professor Shim served on the 2007 Master Jury for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, as a project reviewer in 2010, and was a member of the Award Steering Committee in 2016.

Brigitte Shim is a principal of Shim-Sutcliffe Architects and a professor at the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture

 Brigitte Shim

Yu Kongjian is founder and dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape and the Changjiang Chair Professor of Design, at Peking University. He received a Doctor of Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1995, and taught there from 2009 to 2014. Professor Yu is the founder, president and principal designer of Turenscape, an internationally recognized firm of landscape architecture and urbanism practices worldwide.&nbsp;His projects have received numerous international awards for their ecologically sound and culturally sensitive design, including the 2009 ULI Global Award for Excellence, the 2015 national Energy Globe Award (Energy Globe Foundation) and 12 ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) Awards. He is a three-time winner of the World Landscape Award at the World Architectural Festival, and was awarded the National Gold Medal of Fine Arts by the Cultural Ministry of China in 2004. The most recent monograph on Professor Yu&rsquo;s work is&nbsp;Designed Ecologies: The Landscape Architecture of Kongjian Yu&nbsp;(William Saunders ed., 2012). His projects have been reviewed and featured in hundreds of magazine and journal articles worldwide, including comprehensive coverage in ASLA Landscape Architecture Magazine in 2012. More than ten of his projects have been included in the textbook Landscape Architecture, Fifth Edition (2013) by Stark and Simonds. Professor Yu is a global lecturer and prolific publisher who founded the magazine: Landscape Architecture Frontier (and Landscape Architecture China). He has written 25 books and over 300 papers. His current publications include&nbsp;The Beautiful Big Foot, Landscape as Ecological Infrastructure and The Art of Survival. He has lectured worldwide and was keynote speaker for the 40th, 43rd, 46th, 48th and 52nd IFLA World Congress, and the 2006 and 2008 annual conferences of ASLA. Professor Yu was a member of the 2010 Master Jury for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

Yu Kongjian is founder and dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape and the Changjiang Chair Professor of Design, at Peking University. 

Yu Kongjian

Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) 2016

Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA)

Architecture

2014-2016 Cycle: Steering Committee

Prince Rahim Aga Khan joins world leaders at COP28

Seeking common ground in a world of rivalry: AKDN at the 2023 Paris Peace Forum 

Aga Khan Award for Architecture announces Steering Committee for 2025 Award

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