Sharjah Art Foundation’s Flying Saucer redevelopment has been selected as one of the 20 projects shortlisted for the 2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
The 20 projects have been selected by an independent Master Jury from a pool of 463 that were nominated for the 15th Award Cycle (2020-2022).
As that indicates, the Award is given every three years to “projects that set new standards of excellence in architecture, planning practices, historic preservation and landscape architecture … The Award seeks to identify and encourage building concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of societies across the world, in which Muslims have a significant presence”.
Unlike some other architecture prizes, the Aga Khan Award is for a project rather than its designer; that way it recognises all those who played important roles in the realisation of a project – clients, engineers, master artisans as well as architects. Since it was launched 45 years ago, 121 projects have received the award and nearly 10,000 building projects have been documented during the nomination process.
The shortlisted projects will compete for a share of a $1 million prize, one of the largest on offer in the architecture field. The projects have already undergone rigorous onsite review by independent experts, including architects, conservation specialists, planners and structural engineers; the Master Jury meets again this summer to examine those reports and determine the final recipients of the Award.
In the past the UAE hasn’t figured much in the shortlist, though that all changed in the last cycle. The country had three entries – Concrete at Alserkal Avenue, Al Mureijah Art Spaces, and Sharjah’s Wasit Wetland Centre. The latter was one of the six winners, too.
And Al Mureijah Art Spaces was designed by Mona El Mousfy’s SpaceContinuum, the studio responsible for the reworking of the Flying Saucer. She’s the go-to architect for Sharjah’s cultural places – she is the consultant architect for both Sharjah Art Foundation and the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, for instance, and she was also responsible for the reworking of the Al-Qasimiyah School and the former Al Jubail Vegetable Market for the Triennial (as its HQ and main exhibition space respectively). El Mousfy obviously has an affinity for the low-key brutalism of Sharjah buildings from the 1970s and 80s and is keen to celebrate their virtues by giving them fresh lives.
Not that anyone would call the Flying Saucer low-key. Acquired by the Sharjah Art Foundation in 2012 and used as a venue since 2015, it dates from the mid 1970s – when it must have seemed a futuristic, visionary statement for the development of the city – and has been modified over the decades to accommodate various businesses (café, grocery store, fast food restaurant, newsstand, gift shop among others).
The core structure was revealed by removing grey aluminium cladding on the saucer’s pillars and orange aluminium cladding on the canopy
Hard landscaping created a public plaza around the building
The library and sunken garden seating area
Looking down into the garden, created by excavating into the former car parking area
Looking up from the garden
The underside of the dome was left as undressed concrete
The multipurpose café; capable of hosting film screenings, workshops, performances and readings can be held.
Clever use of skylights
The Flying Saucer in situ
The structure has that dramatic 32-point star-shaped canopy sitting around a 7m central supported on a circular arrangement of eight columns and V-shaped pillars. Most of the internal walls aren’t structural, which gave maximum opportunity to the designers.
Renovations began in 2018 with the removal of most of the accretions (notably a later extension) and the once-garish but dilapidated cladding (orange aluminium on the canopy, grey on the pillars). The underside of the dome was returned to unfinished concrete, and the interior was reworked to provide a working community hub and art space – there are few structural walls, so the designers had maximum opportunity for reorganising the space. They’ve made clever use of natural lightning from skylights.
The car park outside was excavated to provide a new underground space for a library, a film-screening room, sunken courtyard, and workspace and social areas; hard landscaping around this and around the rest of the site works well as a public urban plaza.
We should get the announcement of the prizewinners in late Autumn. Meanwhile images of the 20 shortlisted entries are currently on display in London to 30 June as part of the King’s Cross Outdoor Art Project; and the Flying Saucer itself is of course open to art-inclined visitors.
The Jury:
The nine members of the Master Jury who selected the 20 shortlisted projects are:
Nada Al Hassan an architect specialising in the conservation of architectural and urban heritage
Amale Andraos Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Kader Attia artist who explores the wide-ranging effects of western cultural hegemony and colonialism
Kazi Khaleed Ashraf DG of the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements
Sibel Bozdoğan Visiting Professor of Modern Architecture and Urbanism at Boston University
Lina Ghotmeh French-Lebanese architect who leads a practice where each project learns from a vernacular past
Francis Kéré internationally renowned Burkinabè architect who received the Aga Khan Award in 2004 for his first project, an elementary school in Burkina Faso
Anne Lacaton founder of Lacaton & Vassal in Bordeaux in 1989, who focuses on the generosity of space and economy of means
Nader Tehrani founding principal of NADAAA, a practice dedicated to design innovation, collaboration and a dialogue with the construction industry
Also on the shortlist:
Bahrain: Rehabilitation of Manama Post Office. One of the oldest public buildings in Bahrain (built in 1937), the Post Office has been rehabilitated and reinstated. A new concrete extension has been added and the 1980s steel and concrete façade and portico have beeb removed. By making more of the Manama Post Office accessible to the public, the architects highlighted the importance of historical buildings and the role they can plan in public infrastructure. Architect: Studio Anne Holtrop
Bangladesh: Community Spaces in Rohingya Refugee Response, Teknaf. The six sustainably built structures in the world’s largest refugee camps, housing Rohingya fleeing Myanmar’s genocidal violence, are a collection of practice exercise: each created scope for the next according to need. Much of the design occurred collaboratively in the field. Architect: Rizvi Hassan, Khwaja Fatmi, Saad Ben Mostafa
Bangladesh: Urban River Spaces, Jhenaidah. The community-driven project provides public spaces in the riverine city with 250,000 residents. To date, the project comprises two ghats – steps leading down to platforms at the river, with adjacent walkways – and the opening of obstructed pedestrian pathways leading to them. Locally available materials were used in simple, contextual designs, all built by local builders and masons; the projects retain all existing trees and vegetation. Future phases focus on public use of the river area with walkways, gardens, cultural facilities and environmental efforts to increase biodiversity in the river. Architect: Co.Creation Architects / Khondaker Hasibul Kabir, Suhailey Farzana
Cape Verde: Outros Bairros Rehabilitation Programme, Mindelo. This rehabilitation of the Alto de Bomba district of the port city of Mindelo is rooted in the day-to-day life of the population, defining policy alternatives that recognise informality as a valid method of urbanisation. Its projects cover public spaces; upgrades to drainage, electricity, water and sanitation systems; and three specific urban-rehabilitation schemes. Using local materials allowed residents to execute works in their own neighbourhoods; over two years of activity, it provided work experience for 25 architects and around 60 residents – and directly affected the public space of 171 households and 1,500 residents. Architect: OUTROS BAIRROS / Nuno Flores
India: Lilavati Lalbhai Library, CEPT University, Ahmedabad. The library acts as a living case study of passive climate mitigation strategies, high on the teaching agenda at CEPT University (formerly Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology). Complete with an operating manual for students, its modulated, louvred façades can be manually adjusted to admit less light or more ventilation. First-floor reading rooms overlook the campus. Below-ground book stacks, carrels and study spaces benefit from plentiful natural lighting via the louvred façade and subterranean courtyard, as well as the natural cooling effect of the surrounding earth. Architect: RMA Architects / Rahul Mehrotra
Indonesia: Blimbingsari Airport, Banyuwangi. Shunning the standardised international style of most airports in favour of a context-conscious design approach, this regional hub (over 110,000 passengers daily) it caters to the hot climate through a large-scale, contemporary interpretation of vernacular passive design principles. Openings and overhangs are optimised for temperature control through natural ventilation and shading. A continuous arrangement from landscape to interior space helps airflow, with lush plantings bringing nature inside the building. The roof is in two sections to distinguish departure and arrival halls, both inspired by traditional Indonesian forms; its hipped shapes provide a thermal void, and its grass covering further insulation. Materials were selected for local availability, functionality and low-cost maintenance. Architect: andramatin
Indonesia: Expandable House, Batam. This new sustainable dwelling type is designed to be flexibly configured around its residents’ often precarious resources over time. Its steel-reinforced concrete frame has aerated concrete block cladding at ground and composite bamboo cladding or retractable bamboo screens above. The roof can be hoisted to add levels – the foundations can support up to three floors. Rainwater harvesting, solar panels, and passive cooling principles are integrated, along with a vertical kitchen garden and bamboo nursery are included. The technology, resource strategies and design guidelines can be developed in different ways depending on local social, cultural and environmental conditions. Architect: ETH Zurich / Stephen Cairns with Miya Irawati, Azwan Aziz, Dioguna Putra and Sumiadi Rahman
Iran: Aban House, Isfahan. On a narrow rectangular site in the heart of Isfahan’s dense historic centre, the three-storey house for two architects and their newborn daughter is arranged around three open courtyards. The ground-floor kitchen is the nucleus of the house; the living room is located on the first floor, and bedrooms on the upper floor; a terrace on the roof provides expansive views over Isfahan. The frame structure of the house is clad entirely with handmade local ochre-coloured brick laid in a variety of horizontal and vertical patterns. Architect: USE Studio / Mohammad Arab, Mina Moeineddini
Iran: Argo Contemporary Art Museum & Cultural Centre, Tehran. Tehran’s first independent contemporary art museum is housed in a more-than-100-year-old former brewery that had been abandoned for decades. The architect’s aim was to create a dialogue between old and new by inserting a new foundation and metal structure to support floating concrete floors and roofs independently of the original exterior walls, thus allowing generous ceiling heights (up to 12m) for the climate-controlled galleries. All new insertions are curvilinear and employ distinct materials to differentiate them from the brick-built historic fabric: white concrete grand staircase; metal elevator; brass bar; strata of different-toned concrete cladding for the artist-in-residence tower. Echoing neighbouring vernacular roofs, the five new striated, pitched roof structures act as deep, insulating, filtering skylights. Former basement brewing pools have been converted into sunken galleries. Architect: ASA North / Ahmadreza Schricker
Iran: Jadgal Elementary School, Seyyed Bar. Months of participatory studies after villagers invited the NGO client to build a school here led to the idea that it would serve also as a sustainable development centre for surrounding areas. Standing in a vast field, its enclosing wall is treated as an inviting, playful shell featuring large irregular-shaped perforations, with one thicker portion housing tuckshop, concierge and storage. Classrooms within are joined around a large circular courtyard, fanning out to create triangular secondary yards for air circulation and outdoor activities. The complex also accommodates a library and a multipurpose space for community activities, crafts, or tourist accommodation. Managed by villagers and teachers, the school’s maintenance is funded by income from tourism plus sales of needlework made onsite by local women. Architect: DAAZ Office / Arash Aliabadi
Kuwait Wa fra Wind Tower, Kuwait City. This 13-storey building (12 duplex apartments and a rooftop penthouse) features a central, vertical courtyard that provides natural ventilation to each apartment unit. Circulation stairs and elevators are located on the southern side of the tower and insulate against solar penetration; the other façades provide natural lighting, cross- ventilation and good views. The tower rises from a plinth that contains public areas, including a pool and a gym. Architect: AGi Architects / Joaquín Pérez-Goicoechea, Nasser B. Abulhasan
Lebanon: Renovation of Niemeyer Guest House, Tripoli. Designed in 1962 by noted Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer but abandoned on the brink of completion when civil war erupted in 1975, this pavillion of the Rachid Karami International Fair has been transformed into a design platform and production facility promoting Tripoli’s long-established, pioneering but latterly declining wood industry. Informed by examination of similar but completed Niemeyer projects, the interventions – all reversible – principally comprise: adding flexible, transparent steel-and-glass partitions that echo the ceiling’s rhythmic structural grid; concealing structural elements behind locally sourced plywood panelling; and introducing electro-mechanical features, including custom-made lighting again based on the ceiling grid. The project has spurred work on a conservation plan for the entire site. Architect: East Architecture Studio / Nicolas Fayad, Charles Kettaneh
Morocco: Issy Valley Improvement, Ait Mansour. Part of a government-sponsored hydro-agricultural project for the valley, this initial phase of the project focuses on the improvement of trails and facilities for rural tourists whilst improving the palm orchards and water reservoirs/collectors. The beginning, centre and terminus of a 14-kilometre trail have been created as stone-paved circles, all using traditional techniques and materials by labourers from the 2,500 residents of the valley. Lighting, benches, toilet facilities and signage have been installed, and some of the existing tourist facilities along the trail have been improved. All of the interventions are minimal and aim to be invisible within the existing landscape and settlements. Architect: Salima Naji & Inside Outside
Niger: Niamey 2000, Niamey. Prototype housing that aims to increase density while remaining compatible culturally – six family units, each on two floors and provided with outdoor spaces on the ground and upper floors, occupy the same footprint as a conventional single-family compound. Each unit contains a bedroom, living and dining rooms, storage, and indoor and outdoor kitchens on the ground floor; each upper floor contains two bedrooms, an outdoor laundry and a terrace. Construction employs unfired compressed-earth blocks for the walls and shallow-vault ceilings; limited use of reinforced concrete provides support for the roofs. Passive cooling is inherent in the earth construction materials and in the organisation of spaces around open areas and shaded terraces. Architect: united4design / Yasaman Esmaili, Elizabeth Golden, Mariam Kamara, Philip Straeter
Palestine: Tulkarm Courthouse, Tulkarm. On a prominent triangular site in this West Bank town of 50,000 inhabitants, the ensemble features one building for administrative facilities and another containing 10 courtrooms; the two are accessed from broad stone stairs that give onto an open urban plaza. In the administrative building, the deep-set windows are shielded from direct sunlight by angled stone-faced frames; the courthouse building features galvanised, powder-coated steel screens that filter direct sunlight. The two buildings are arranged to form a planted courtyard, and circulation between the two is through two glass-walled corridors that are open on the ground level. Finely detailed stonework characterises both buildings and the courtyard and plaza areas. Architect: AAU Anastas
Senegal: CEM Kamanar Secondary School, Thionck Essyl. Climatic comfort and low cost were key issues in this project. Clay, the region’s most abundant material, was freely available on site (the quarry subsequently became the school’s sports field). A catenary vault form was chosen because it works purely in compression – the only stress that clay can withstand. Clay vault modules produced by volunteers using local techniques are enclosed with wooden lattices, allowing light in. The clay and lattices act as an evaporating cooler – no artificial air-conditioning is required. Grooved metal sheeting protects the clay from rain and sunlight. The detached modules or “awlas” are arranged in year-group classroom sets around a series of squares, each accommodating a pre-existing tree; there’s also a library, two administration volumes, sanitary facilities and offices. Architect: Dawoffice
Sri Lanka Lanka Learning Centre, Parangiyamadu. This facility houses two NGOs founded by the client to encourage education and inter-community reconciliation; it hosts gatherings, craft education for adults and a large annual sports, games and music festival for children. The pentangular plan’s circumferential wall meanders inwards and outwards, creating pockets of space. Its five pavilions, of local clay brick in earthquake-resistant concrete frames, stand on a plinth around a central sandy area; the roofs overhang a platform with deep steps that double as a ‘grandstand’. Architect: feat.collective / Noemi Thiele, Felix Lupatsch, Valentin Ott and Felix Yaparsidi
Tunisia Le Jardin d’Afrique, Zarzis. This project on Tunisia’s southern coast is a memorial to and graveyard for migrants who drown whilst crossing the Mediterranean. The artist Rachid Koraïchi initiated and designed the entire project: a small residence for a caretaker, a morgue and a doctor’s office, public sanitary facilities and an ecumenical prayer room. All the walls, the domed-and-vaulted buildings, gravestones and tile paving were crafted entirely by hand, and much of the work was undertaken b
Turkey: Rehabilitation of Tarsus Old Ginnery, Tarsus. An adaptive reuse of a historic industrial complex as a contemporary centre for archaeological research and public engagement, this project involved the restoration and redesign of the dilapidated buildings of an abandoned 19th-century ginnery. It serves as the premises of the Boğaziçi University team excavating the ancient mound of Gözlükule (with living quarters, an artefacts depot and study room) as well as a conference hall and exhibition space open to the public and a library, café and courtyard. The creative design approach and interplay between spaces has reintegrated the complex of four buildings and central open space into the life of the city. Architect: Sayka Construction Architecture Engineering Consultancy
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