The members of the Master Jury for the 2017-2019 Cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture were announced today. The Jury, which independently selects the recipients of the US$ 1 million Award, will convene in January 2019 to select a shortlist from hundreds of nominated projects.
The nine members of the Master Jury for the 2017-2019 Award cycle are:
- Kwame Anthony Akroma-Ampim Kusi Appiah, an Anglo-Ghanaian American philosopher and cultural theorist recognized for his work in 2012 by President Obama
- Meisa Batayneh, founder and principal architect of maisam architects & engineers in Amman and Abu Dhabi
- Sir David Chipperfield, founder and principal of David Chipperfield Architects in London and Berlin
- Elizabeth Diller, co-founder and principal of Diller Scofidio Renfro in New York
- Edhem Eldem, a Professor of History at Boğaziçi University (Istanbul) and International Chair of Turkish and Ottoman History at the Collège de France
- Mona Fawaz, Professor in Urban Studies and Planning, and the director of the Social Justice and the City research programme at the American University of Beirut
- Kareem Ibrahim, Egyptian architect and urban researcher who worked on UNDP’s Historic Cairo Rehabilitation Project
- Ali M. Malkawi, professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and founding director of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities
- Nondita Correa Mehrotra, principal of RMA Architects in India and the United States
Once the Master Jury selects a shortlist, the shortlisted projects are then subjected to rigorous on-site reviews by independent experts, most of them architects, conservation specialists, planners or structural engineers. The Jury meets for a second time in summer 2019 to examine the on-site reviews and select the final recipients of the Award.
The selection process emphasizes architecture that not only provides for people’s physical, social and economic needs, but that also stimulates and responds to their cultural aspirations. Particular attention is given to building schemes that use local resources and appropriate technology in innovative ways and to projects likely to inspire similar efforts elsewhere.