“…I came to realise that the proud architectural heritage of the Islamic world was progressively vanishing. The physical legacy of great Muslim empires was collapsing, and the response in the Islamic world seemed to be oblivion… As one observer commented, the physical identity of the Islamic world had been reduced to coffee table books. It was out of these concerns that the Aga Khan Award for Architecture was established in 1977, followed by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and its Historic Cities Programme.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
London, UK, October 22, 2015
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN
“My attention to cultural legacies was triggered, over three decades ago, when I realized that the proud architectural heritage of the Islamic world was endangered. The art forms through which great Islamic cultures had expressed their identity and their ideals were deteriorating. The result, for huge segments of the world’s population, was a fading of cultural memory… Our response to that situation began with the creation, in 1977, of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, dedicated to the renewal of this legacy.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
UNESCO Conference, Hangzhou, China, May 15, 2013
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN
“…cultural heritage can itself be a “trampoline” for social and economic development, in the same way that agriculture, water resources, power supplies or transportation systems have traditionally been perceived. Even in settings of abject poverty, cultural legacies, though once dormant, can become powerful catalysts for change.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
UNESCO Conference, Hangzhou, China, May 15, 2013
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN
“….our past, our roots, give us the rights to say that the choices we make are our choices and that the opportunities we have today will do for the next decades what early Muslims did in Spain, Syria or Iran, what the Ottoman Turks, Timurids or Mughals did some five or six hundred years ago in Anatolia, Iran or India to understand sufficiently well what was available and appropriate in non-Muslim lands in order to create something profoundly Muslim.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
First Presentation Ceremony, Aga Khan Award for Architecture
Lahore, Pakistan, October 23, 1980
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN
Thirty years ago, as the eye ranged across most of the developing world, it was difficult to find new construction that reflected in its design a concern much less an understanding of the social, cultural, or in some cases, even the climatic context in which it was built.
I was particularly disturbed to find this in the Islamic world, given its historical record of architectural achievement and the special place that architecture has played in the aesthetics and spiritual expression of its cultures. The gap between past accomplishment and current practice was massive. This recognition led to the establishment of the Award.
His Highness the Aga Khan
Award Presentation Ceremony, Aleppo, Syria
November 6, 2001
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN
The Award can today congratulate itself on having encouraged all the efforts, all the willingness directed towards the promotion of an architecture worthy of our Islamic cultural heritage and, at the same time, open to the contributions of modernity…Ever since our first seminar, we have not ceased to nurture our ambition to recreate links with the great traditions of learning, exemplary cultural achievements, open, tolerant, emancipating humanism and spiritual inspiration which characterise our common tradition.
His Highness the Aga Khan
Award Presentation Ceremony, Marrakech, Morocco
November 24, 1986
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN
Compiled by Nimira Dewji
Ismailimail 