The National Building Museum's fifth Vincent Scully Prize will be presented on January 25, 2005 to His Highness The Aga Khan, in recognition of his contributions to promoting design excellence and improving the built environment in the Muslim world.
The Vincent Scully Prize was established in 1999 to recognize exemplary practice, scholarship or criticism in architecture, historic preservation and urban design.
In 1977, His Highness The Aga Khan established The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the world's largest prize for architecture. Presented every three years, it recognizes not only architects for exemplary, contemporary work, but also clients, individual and large builders, governments and planners involved in projects that meet social development needs in countries where Muslims have a significant presence. In addition, through The Aga Khan Trust for Culture established in 1988, The Aga Khan has supported numerous conservation and urban revitalization projects in culturally significant sites of the Islamic world.
His Highness The Aga Khan is the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims and a direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Vincent Scully Prize will be presented to The Aga Khan at a black tie Gala to be held at the National Building Museum on Monday, January 25, 2005. His Highness will also participate in a public program the following day which will include distinguished speakers talking about the significance and impact of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and other current issues in architecture.
Vincent Scully is the Sterling Professor Emeritus of the history of art at Yale University and a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Miami. For more than four decades his teaching and scholarship have profoundly influenced prominent architects and urban planners. Past recipients of the prize have included Vincent J. Scully, Jane Jacobs, Andres Duany & Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown.
The National Building Museum, created by an act of Congress in 1980, is a private, nonprofit institution whose mission is to explore the world we build for ourselves by examining and interpreting achievements in architecture, planning, design, engineering and construction through exhibitions, educational programming and publications. Museum hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. Admission is free.
His Highness The Aga Khan will receive the Museum's 2005 Vincent Scully Prize at a gala dinner on January 25. On the following day he will participate in a public program exploring his contributions to promoting design excellence, urban revitalization, and historic preservation in the Muslim world.
For further details about the two events and registration information, visit the NBM website.
Design in the Islamic World and Its Impact Beyond
Wednesday, January 26
6:00-7:30 pm
Through the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and other major programs such as the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology established over the past 25 years, His Highness The Aga Khan has stimulated the practice and teaching of appropriate design in the Islamic world and has promoted the revitalization of architecture as a bridge of understanding between the West and Islamic culture. He believes that thoughtful design in today's pluralistic world can reflect an appreciation of the distinct architectural traditions and cultures of today's societies.
In this program exploring the contributions of His Highness and celebrating his receipt of the Museum's 2005 Vincent Scully Prize, the acclaimed architect Charles Correa from Bombay, Indiabhimself a winner of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture as well as many other international prizes' will discuss how design should involve pluralism and what we all can learn from design in the Islamic world. His Highness The Aga Khan will make a short presentation about his work and then engage in an extended dialogue with Charles Correa and Robert Ivy, FAIA, editor-in-chief of Architectural Record, who will moderate the discussion. CEU
$25 Museum members; $30 nonmembers; $15 students. Prepaid registrations required. To register, click or call 202.272.2448.