The Master Jury for the 2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture was announced today.
The independent panel, responsible for selecting the winners of the prestigious US$ 1 million Award, will meet in January to evaluate and shortlist projects from hundreds of nominations worldwide.
The nine members of the Master Jury for the 16th Award cycle (2023-2025) are:
- Azra Akšamija, Professor & Director, Art, Culture and Technology Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA
- Noura Al-Sayeh Holtrop, Advisor for Heritage Projects, Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, Manama, Bahrain
- Lucia Allais, Director, Buell Center, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, New York, USA
- David Basulto, Founder, ArchDaily, Santiago, Chile and Berlin, Germany
- Yvonne Farrell, Academy of Architecture, Mendrisio, Switzerland; Founder and Partner, Grafton Architects, Dublin, Ireland
- Kabage Karanja, Co-founder, Cave_bureau, Nairobi, Kenya; Assistant Professor of Architectural Design, Yale University, New Haven, USA
- Yacouba Konaté, Professor of Philosophy, University Félix Houphouët Boigny of Abidjan-Cocody, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
- Hassan Radoine, Director General & Full Professor, Citinnov SA for Integrated Territorial Planning and Smart Cities, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Rabat, Morocco
- Mun Summ Wong, Professor-in-Practice, Department of Architecture, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore; Co-founding Director, WOHA, Singapore
Following the selection of the shortlist, projects will undergo rigorous on-site reviews by independent experts, the majority of whom are architects, conservation specialists, planners or structural engineers. The Jury will meet for a second time in summer 2025 to examine the on-site reviews and select the final winners.
The selection process emphasises architecture that not only provides for people’s physical, social and economic needs, but 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.
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture is governed by a Steering Committee chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan. The other members of the Steering Committee are:
- Meisa Batayneh, Principal Architect, Founder, maisam architects and engineers, Amman, Jordan
- Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Professor in the departments of French and Philosophy, Columbia University, New York, USA
- Lesley Lokko, Founder & Director, African Futures Institute, Accra, Ghana
- Gülru Necipoğlu, Director and Professor of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
- Hashim Sarkis, Dean, School of Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
- Sarah M. Whiting, Dean, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
Farrokh Derakhshaniis the Director of the Award.
