By A.Thobhani
One of the first presentations at the Ismaili Centre on August 19, 2022 after a two year pandemic was a welcome treat. The in-person event on the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AAKA) featured a keynote by AAKA Director, Farrokh Derakhshani with a photographic exhibits of the 20 Shortlisted Projects. They were displayed both in the social hall which held this event and downstairs in the logia, attended by about hundred and fifty enthusiasts comprising of architecture fans, scholars, architects and some aspiring ones too.
Derakshani had returned from his Edmonton event a day earlier which comprised mostly of a slide show power point presentation of these twenty entries throughout the world. They ranged from a Airport in Indonesia, Court House in Palestine, to schools in Senegal, Iran and Sri Lanka to slumps converted to pubic space in Cape Verdi Senegal. Other projects included a Library in India and sadly a cemetery in Tunisia, for the corpses of refugees of these illegal and unknown migrants from capsized boats to a three level home in Switzerland capturing higher density as the conditions prevail, all of them with different merits.
He reiterated about the jury and the selection process. This was followed by a Q & A on the process of and the eligibility time frame on the entries, to questions on Islamic architecture. It was alarming to learn for some when Derakshani responded with ” there is no such thing as Islamic or Catholic architecture, just like there is no Islamic airport”. The afternoon event ran for just over an hour followed by refreshments and the tour off the exhibition or the center for the interested patrons.
