Monthly Archives: August 2019

6 Recipients of the 2019 Aga Khan Award for Architecture Announced

The six recipients of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) were announced today at a ceremony in Kazan, in the Republic of Tartarstan. The recipients are a revitalization of Muharraq, Bahrain highlighting the World Heritage site’s pearling history; an “amphibious” school in South Kanarchor, Bangladesh; the sustainably constructed Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, Palestine; the development of 328 public spaces for recreation in the Republic of Tartarstan; an extension of the campus of Alioune Diop University in Bambey, Senegal; and the restoration of an indigenous ecosystem in Sharjah, UAE. Recipients were announced by Irada Ayupova, Minister of Culture of the […]

Archnet marks International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, August 9

To mark International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on August 9, Archnet is highlighting the architecture of indigenous people. The background images on the site are photographs of the Amin Mosque, a Uyghur mosque built in the 18th century in northwest China; and a street in the Old Town of Ghadames, an oasis town on the edge of the Sahara Desert in Libya. Click the images and text on the homepage tiles to learn about more resources devoted to the theme. There is also an Archnet collection that gathers select resources focusing on manifestations of indigenous culture and vernacular […]

Archnet Word of Day: “ablaq”

Yesterday Archnet social media featured the first of a new series of “Word of the Day” updates. The first word is ablaq, defined by the Dictionary of Islamic Architecture as “term used to describe alternating light and dark courses of masonry.” In the image to the left you can see five examples of the style from including a hammam in Aleppo, a palace in Damascus, a mosque that is now a cathedral in Cordoba, and mosques in Tripoli (Lebanon), and a mosque complex in Damascus. The next word in the series, “almena” is defined by the Oxford Dictionary of Architecture as […]