During the award ceremony held at Kazan's Musa Jalil State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Aga Khan commented on the importance of architecture as a tool for improving the quality of human life. "Architecture - more than any other art form - has a profound impact on the quality of human life. As it has often been said, we shape our built environment - and then our buildings shape us," he said. "This close relationship of architecture to the quality of human experience has a particularly profound resonance in the developing world. I believe that we all have a responsibility to improve the quality of life whenever and wherever that opportunity arises. Our commitment to influencing the quality of architecture - intellectually and materially - grows directly out of our commitment to improving the quality of human life."