SOUK WAQIF,
KATAR’DA
ORİJİNAL
İHTİŞAMINA
DÖNDÜRÜLMEK
ÜZERE RESTORE
EDİLMİŞ.
people’s physical, social and economic needs, but that
also stimulates and responds to their cultural and spiritual expectations. The AKAA gives particular attention to
building schemes that use local resources and appropriate
technology in an innovative way, and to projects likely to
inspire similar efforts elsewhere. This is all done to meet
the goal of modernization but within a sensitive and sustainable understanding of how people can live.
The 11th Cycle of the AKAA
In the latest cycle, the 11th of the Award we can see the
direction that AKAA has taken in the 19 shortlisted projects. These projects ranging geographically from Spain to
China focus on many of today’s key social and ecological
issues. They are not utopic suggestions meant to inspire
but pragmatic built projects designed to meet immediate
needs while providing a buildable example to the rest
of the world. The ideas behind these projects are those
shared by many of today’s practitioners committed to the
social responsibilities of architecture while still maintaining a commitment to innovative design. Though this
position echoes socially engaged movements of the past,
the projects highlighted by the AKAA 11th cycle are not
interested in grand manifestos or unsustainable theories.
Instead, their commitment is to a pragmatism can be seen
in the projects they have realized, from a small school in
China to a redevelopment of 19th century urban fabric in
Tunis, from a museum of cultural heritage in Spain to a
nature center that is ecotourist gateway to hard wood
forest in Bangladesh. In this attention to new needs and
requirements, Emre Arolat Architects’ Ipekyol Textile Factory for example was the first factory ever nominated for
the Award showing how architecture can provide solutions in the industrialization process. Buildings such as
Ipekyol show the AKAA commitment in the longstanding
dialogue between architecture and society, in which the
architect’s methods and approaches are being dramatically reevaluated. These shortlist buildings also propose
an expanded definition of sustainability that adds to the
existing agenda of experimentation with new materials
and technologies to include concepts such as social and
economic stewardship. Together, these undertakings not
only offer practical solutions to basic needs, but also aim
to have a broader effect on the communities in which
they work, using design as a tool for progress and social
change. Of these architects, many originating from the
countries where their projects are located, we see a commitment to a long term view that architecture no matter
how much a product of media, finance, philosophy, is ultimately responsible for how people live.
SOUK WAQIF IN
DOHA, QATAR
IS RESTORED TO
ITS ORIGINAL
SPLENDOR.
KASIM-ARALIK 2010 • NATURA 27