His Highness the Aga Khan, recipient of the 2013 Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medal, addresses the audience gathered at the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat in Ottawa, upon receiving the honour. – Photo: AKDN / Farhez Rayani
“How do we protect the past and inspire the future? Put another way, how do we reshape and reposition knowledge and taste and appreciation in the public psyche, and among those who play a role in developing human habitat?
We broadened the definition of architecture from one that tended to look only at individual structures, to one that encompassed entire neighbourhoods, including informal settlements, village communities and open public spaces.
And finally, new initiatives outside the Award itself became necessary. In education, our Trust for Culture supports the Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture at Harvard and M.I.T. The Trust’s Historic Cities Support Programme helps create new examples and models for reviving historic buildings and spaces.”
Extracts from address by His Highness the Aga Khan at the ninth award cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture
New Delhi, India
November 27, 2004
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN
“What we spotlight through this award is an all-encompassing sweep of human endeavour, shaping an infinite variety of human spaces . The spaces we had in mind in establishing this Award were broadly defined, encompassing places both public and private, enclosed and open, urban and rural, residential and commercial, cultural and industrial, intimate and grand, religious and secular.”
Extracts from address by His Highness the Aga Khan at the tenth award cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
September 4, 2007
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN
“The pace of change is accelerating in our world and it is critical that the Architectural Award should continue to be positioned at the cutting edge of change. The future will bring an ever-demanding set of new challenges, such as global urbanisation. My hope is that the Award will always be responsive to the challenge of change.”
Extracts from address by His Highness the Aga Khan at the twelfth award cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture
Lisbon, Portugal
September 6, 2013
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN
“Traditional approaches to urban regeneration – which are often designed to create museums of these neighbourhoods – fail to address social and economic dimensions. They become unproductive burdens on poor municipalities. The central objective of our work, therefore, is to leverage culture in pursuit of poverty alleviation. We do this by bringing a critical mass of programs to bear – the creation of parks and gardens, heritage conservation, water and sanitation, microfinance, open space and infrastructure improvements, and education and health initiatives. We have found that poor people can benefit from these efforts and can become custodians of their heritage.”
Luis Monreal, General Manager of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture,
accepting the ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development on behalf of His Highness the Aga Khan, Los Angeles, USA
October 27, 2011
AKDN Press Release
Compiled by Nimira Dewji
Ismailimail 