Concrete in Alserkal Avenue shortlisted for 2019 Aga Khan Award for Architecture

Concrete, commissioned by Alserkal, has been shortlisted for the 2019 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, marking the first time a Dubai-based project has been shortlisted for the prestigious award. This is also the first time a project by Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has been shortlisted.

Concrete is the first building in the UAE to be completed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), founded by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas. Commissioned by Alserkal in 2015, Concrete was inaugurated in March 2017. To date, it has hosted five museum-grade, non-profit exhibitions in collaboration with world-renowned institutions including Victoria and Albert Museum, Hayward Gallery, the Atassi Foundation for Arts & Culture, UAE Unlimited, and the Samdani Art Foundation.

The shortlist was announced on April 25, 2019 in Kazan, Russia, at an exhibition on the Aga Khan Award for Architecture that was inaugurated by His Excellency Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan. Recipients of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture will be announced in Fall 2019. Winning works will receive a 1 million USD prize.

Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal, Founder of Alserkal, said: “I am proud that the first Dubai-based project to be shortlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture is one that was commissioned to foster dialogue around the notion of preservation in the context of modern architecture.”

Iyad Alsaka, Partner at OMA, said: “We are deeply honoured that our design for Concrete, our first realised project in Dubai, has been shortlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. From the start, the idea for Concrete was to create a space for international and local exchange. Our initiative to repurpose an industrial structure makes it a precedent in the architectural landscape of Dubai. It is a very important project for our firm and for the region.”

At the crossroads of modular design and modern architecture, Concrete is nestled in the heart of Alserkal Avenue in Dubai. A collection of warehouses that have been conserved and re-imagined by OMA, it is an adaptable venue whose ability to metamorphose brings creative visions to life, making it the home for art, design, fashion, and performing arts experiences. Concrete, which is conceptualised and programmed by Alserkal, draws inspiration from the contemporary artistic practices that surround it.

Concrete is one of three UAE projects to be shortlisted for the 2019 Aga Khan Award for architecture. They include Al Mureijah Art Spaces and the Wasit Wetland Centre, both located in Sharjah. Concrete is the first Dubai project to ever be shortlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, which is given every three years to projects that set new standards of excellence in architecture, planning practices, historic preservation, and landscape architecture. Through its efforts, 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.

The shortlisted projects were selected by a master jury, comprised of leading international architects, academics, and theorists: Anthony Kwamé Appiah, an Anglo-Ghanaian American philosopher; Meisa Batayneh, founder and principal architect of Maisam architects & engineers; Sir David Chipperfield, whose practice has built over 100 projects for both the private and public sectors; Elizabeth Diller, a founding partner of a design studio whose practice spans the fields of architecture multi-media performance and digital media; Edhem Eldem, a Professor of History at Boğaziçi University (Istanbul) and the Collège de France; Mona Fawaz, a Professor in Urban Studies and Planning at the Issam Fares Institute of Public Policy at the American University of Beirut; Kareem Ibrahim, an Egyptian architect and urban researcher who has worked extensively in Historic Cairo; Ali M. Malkawi, a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and a founding director of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities; and Nondita Correa Mehrotra, an architect working in India and the United States and Director of the Charles Correa Foundation.

The Steering Committee is chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan. The other members of the Steering Committee are: Sir David Adjaye, Principal Adjaye Associates, London, Mohammad al-Asad, Founding Director, Center for the Study of the Built Environment, Amman, Emre Arolat, Founder, EAA- Emre Arolat Architecture, New York-London-Istanbul, Francesco Bandarin, Special Advisor, UNESCO, Paris, Hanif Kara, Design Director - AKT II, London, and Professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, Azim Nanji, Special Advisor, Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Nasser Rabbat, Aga Khan Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Brigitte Shim, Partner, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, Toronto, and Marina Tabassum, Principal, Marina Tabassum Architects, Dhaka. Farrokh Derakhshani is the Director of the Award.