Many of the birds that stop off at the Wasit Wetland Centre in Sharjah on their annual journey from Asia to Africa end up staying longer than expected. "The birds don’t want to leave the site," says Ahmed Al Ali, co-founder of X-Architects, the Dubai company that designed the centre. It’s little wonder that 350 species of bird – some local, others migratory – can be found at the Wasit Wetland Centre. Situated near a large power station on the border between Sharjah and Ajman, this area used to be a dumping ground in the 1970s. The pools of water were toxic with oil. Last week, Al Ali and his partner at X-Architects, Farid Esmaeil, travelled to Kazan, Russia, to collect an Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the Wasit Wetland Centre. The Sharjah centre was one of just six winning projects.