From Houston Chronicle
By VIJAY JOSHI
Associated Press
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A public square in Beirut, a skyscraper in Singapore and a renovated ancient city in Yemen are among the nine winners of the 2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, which celebrate the mundane to the magnificent around the globe.
The nine winning projects, announced Tuesday, will share the US$500,000 award – the world’s biggest prize for architectural excellence – given once every three years by the Aga Khan Development Network, a group of agencies that seek to improve living conditions in poor countries.
The network is headed by Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Shiite Ismaili Muslims, a community of 15 million people living in 25 countries.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced the awards at a ceremony in the Dewan Philharmonic Hall of the Petronas Twin Towers, which won the award in 2004.
Farrokh Derakhshani, the director of the awards, said the jury looks beyond visual appeal.
More at the source: Houston Chronicle
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