Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2025 winners to be honoured in Kyrgyzstan

The winners of the 2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) have been announced and an independent Master Jury chose seven winners to share the $1 million award for the 16th Award Cycle (2023-2025). The winners were selected after considering on-site reviews of shortlisted projects that were announced in June.

The recipients explore architecture’s capacity to serve as a catalyst for pluralism, community resilience, social transformation, cultural dialogue and climate-responsive design. The Award honours groundbreaking architecture, shaping a sustainable future.

Recipients of the Award are: Bangladesh – Khudi Bari, in various locations, by Marina Tabassum Architects, a replicable solution built with bamboo and steel for displaced communities affected by climatic and geographic changes. The Jury recognised the project’s deep ecological framing, contributing to the global advancement of bamboo as a material. China – West Wusutu Village Community Centre, in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, by Grand Architecture Design Co., Ltd.

It is a centre built from reclaimed bricks that provides social and cultural spaces for residents and artists, while addressing the cultural needs of the local multi-ethnic community, including Hui Muslims. The Jury noted that the project generates a valuable shared and inclusive communal microcosm within a rural human macrocosm.

Majara Residence against the mountains.

Egypt – Revitalisation of Historic Esna, by Takween Integrated Community Development. The project addresses cultural tourism challenges through physical interventions, socioeconomic initiatives and innovative urban strategies, transforming a neglected site into a prospering historic city. The Jury acknowledged the ways the project stimulates a historic urban metabolism to cope with the contemporary challenge of improving human conditions. Iran – Majara Residence and Community Redevelopment, in Hormuz Island, by ZAV Architects; it is a colourful complex whose domes reflect the rainbow island’s ochre-rich soils, providing sustainable accommodations for tourists who visit the unique landscape of Hormuz Island. The Jury described the project as a vibrant archipelago that serves to incrementally build an alternative tourism economy.

Jahad Metro Plaza, in Tehran, by KA Architecture Studio, a once dilapidated station transformed into a vibrant urban node for pedestrians. The Jury highlighted the use of local handmade brick as strengthening the connection with Iran’s rich architectural heritage, while emphasising the station’s status as a new urban monument. Pakistan – Vision Pakistan, in Islamabad, by DB Studios, a multistorey facility boasting joyful facades inspired by Pakistani and Arab craft, while housing a charity that aims to empower disadvantaged youth through vocational training. The Jury noted that the building not only contains a new type of education, but is full of light, spatially interesting and economically efficient.

Palestine – Wonder Cabinet, in Bethlehem, by AAU Anastas, a multipurpose, non-profit exhibition and production space built with the input of local artisans and contractors, to become a key hub for craft, design, innovation and learning. The Jury found that the building is rooted in contemporary expressions of national identity, and asserts the importance of cultural production as a means of resistance. The prize-giving ceremony will be held at the Toktogul Satylganov Kyrgyz National Philharmonic in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, on September 15. The Award will not only reward architects, but also municipalities, builders, clients, master artisans and engineers, who have played important roles in the projects.

Optimism and Architecture, edited by Lesley Lokko, will be published by ArchiTangle in September 2025 which presents the awarded and shortlisted projects for the 2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Through essays and conversations, the volume examines how architecture can reinvigorate tradition through innovation, connect local practices with global conversations, and create inclusive spaces where diverse cultures and histories converge. His Highness Prince Rahim Aga Khan V, AKAA Steering Committee Chair, says: “Inspiring younger generations to build with environmental care, knowledge and empathy, is among the greatest aims of this Award. Architecture today must engage with the climate crisis, enhance education and nourish our shared humanity. Through it, we plant seeds of optimism – quiet acts of resilience that grow into spaces of belonging, where the future may thrive in dignity and hope.”

A view of Jahad Metro Plaza.

AKAA was established in 1977 to identify and encourage building concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of communities in which Muslims have a significant presence. The Award’s selection process emphasises architecture that not only provides for people’s physical, social and economic needs, but that also stimulates and responds to their cultural aspirations. In the past 16 triennial cycles of the Award, 136 projects have been awarded and nearly 10,000 building projects documented.

“Architecture can – and must – be a catalyst for hope, shaping not only the spaces we inhabit but the futures we imagine. In an age defined by climate crisis, resource inequality and rapid urbanisation, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture celebrates projects that unite society, sustainability and pluralism to empower a more harmonious and resilient world,” said Farrokh Derakhshani, AKAA Director. AKAA is a programme of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).

AKDN works in 30 countries and its agencies operate over 1,000 programmes and institutions, to improve the quality of life and to create opportunity for people of all faiths and origins. The mandates of its agencies include education and health, agriculture and food security, micro-finance, human habitat, crisis response and disaster reduction, protection of the environment, art, music, architecture, urban planning and conservation, and cultural heritage and preservation. AKDN employs approximately 96,000 people, the majority of whom are based in developing countries. Its annual expenditures for non-profit development activities is approximately $1 billion.