Viewpoint Elsa Lam for Canadian Architect
His Highness the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the world’s Ismaili Muslims, does not look like a man who spends time on construction sites. But when it comes to architecture, the Aga Khan knows his stuff: he’s been a careful observer and patron of projects around the world since succeeding his grandfather as Imam in 1957, at the age of 20.
Last November, the Aga Khan was awarded the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s highest honour: the RAIC Gold Medal. “In Islam, the role of an Imam is not limited to the domain of faith,” he said in his acceptance remarks. “It also includes a deep engagement in the world, in all of the wide and complex issues that affect our quality of life. Among those issues, not many have more impact than architecture and the buildings in which we spend, at all ages, so many days and nights of our lives.”
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