A Lebanese guesthouse, a Bangladeshi refugee space, a Senegalese school and a museum in Iran are among the winners of the $1 million Aga Khan Award for Architecture, now in its 45th year.
The six award winners will share the prize pot, one of the largest in architecture, for an award that was established in 1977 by the Aga Khan to reward building projects and designs that address the needs of communities with significant Muslim populations.
Tripoli guesthouse
The renovation of Lebanon's Niemeyer Guest House in Tripoli is one of the projects. It “is an inspiring tale of architecture's capacity for repair, at a time of dizzying, entangled crisis around the world, and in Lebanon in particular”, the jury said.
On the outskirts of the city, the building stands inside an entrance to the Rachid Karami International Fair, a project by architect Oscar Niemeyer that has been left derelict and unfinished after the country's civil war halted it in 1975.
The 10-hectare fair site is a widely celebrated example of Modernist architecture in the Middle East.
The single-storey guesthouse, transformed by East Architecture Studio, appears windowless from the outside and yet is flooded with light via a central atrium and two courtyards.
Community spaces in Bangladesh
Bangladesh's Urban River Spaces, a former dump site that has been transformed into a multifunctional space used by communities in Jhenaidah, is part of an initiative to clean the Nabaganga River.
“As such, the project managed to reverse the ecological degradation and health hazards of the river and its banks and induce effective ecological improvement of the river in one of the most riverine countries on earth,” an extract from the jury citation said.
Future plans at this project include the introduction of walkways, gardens, cultural facilities and efforts to increase biodiversity in the area.
Six temporary community spaces of the Rohingya Response programme in Cox's Bazaar also received the award, as they provide “dignified, sensitive and ingenious response to emergency needs”.
These comprise a women-friendly space that encompasses psychosocial support, a breastfeeding area and a courtyard for women and girls to play. Another zone offers space for Rohingya women to craft products and sell them to visitors, while a third serves Hindu Rohingya communities with domestic violence issues.
An airport in Indonesia
In Indonesia, the Banyuwangi International Airport in East Java, designed by architect Andra Matin, caught jury members' eyes. It is described as a “game-changer in airport architecture”.
It was inspired by the houses of the local Osing tribe and features two pitched-roof structures covered in grass and crowned with timber-frame, asymmetrical pyramidal skylights that pay homage to the traditional Banyuwangi headdress.
“Arising from a sea of a paddy fields, the building extends the language of the landscape into a concentrated event that coalesces architecture, functionality and setting in a seamless yet discernible disposition,” the jury said.
Tehran museum and Senegalese school
In Iran, the Argo Contemporary Art Museum and Cultural Centre has also received international recognition.
The jury described it as an “untypical” reuse and conservation project, as it transformed a former brewery into a private museum for contemporary art, with spaces for exhibitions, talks and film screenings across four floors.
The project retained the “full integrity and raw beauty of the historic building”, judges said, through the use of steel columns, reinstated brickwork and a white concrete staircase, as well as a brass public bar. Five pitched-concrete roof structures “appear to float above the building — a 'tip of the hat' symbolising its return to life”.
The final winner is the Kamanar Secondary School in Senegal, a complex that “addresses the multiple scales of urbanism, landscape, architecture and building technologies with equal commitment and virtuosity”.
The site's topography and flora, which includes a grid of classroom pods centred around pre-existing foliage, are especially striking features.
2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture
These winners were chosen from a shortlist of 20 projects, which in turn were whittled down from a pool of 463. On-site reviews by a team of experts were undertaken to devise the final list.
“We wanted our collective message to reflect the extraordinary times we are living in, from Covid and climate change to social polarisation, poverty, inequality and conflict,” the master jury report said.
“To that end, we sought to identify exemplary and transformative practices that address these particular challenges.”
The jury looked for “quality, not only of the architectural space, but the quality of life and social relationships facilitated by architecture — the generosity and beauty that architecture can strive to make more accessible”.
Jury members this year included architects Nada Al Hassan and Lina Ghotmeh, artist Kader Attia and professor Amale Andraos.
An award ceremony will soon take place in Muscat, Oman, in conjunction with the Aga Khan Music Awards.
SUE%20GRAY'S%20FINDINGS
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'Munich: The Edge of War'
Director: Christian Schwochow
Starring: George MacKay, Jannis Niewohner, Jeremy Irons
Rating: 3/5
MATCH INFO
English Premiership semi-finals
Saracens 57
Wasps 33
Exeter Chiefs 36
Newcastle Falcons 5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
FIXTURES
Monday, January 28
Iran v Japan, Hazza bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Tuesday, January 29
UAEv Qatar, Mohamed Bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Friday, February 1
Final, Zayed Sports City Stadium (6pm)
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
JOKE'S%20ON%20YOU
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French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
World record transfers
1. Kylian Mbappe - to Real Madrid in 2017/18 - €180 million (Dh770.4m - if a deal goes through)
2. Paul Pogba - to Manchester United in 2016/17 - €105m
3. Gareth Bale - to Real Madrid in 2013/14 - €101m
4. Cristiano Ronaldo - to Real Madrid in 2009/10 - €94m
5. Gonzalo Higuain - to Juventus in 2016/17 - €90m
6. Neymar - to Barcelona in 2013/14 - €88.2m
7. Romelu Lukaku - to Manchester United in 2017/18 - €84.7m
8. Luis Suarez - to Barcelona in 2014/15 - €81.72m
9. Angel di Maria - to Manchester United in 2014/15 - €75m
10. James Rodriguez - to Real Madrid in 2014/15 - €75m
Difference between fractional ownership and timeshare
Although similar in its appearance, the concept of a fractional title deed is unlike that of a timeshare, which usually involves multiple investors buying “time” in a property whereby the owner has the right to occupation for a specified period of time in any year, as opposed to the actual real estate, said John Peacock, Head of Indirect Tax and Conveyancing, BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem & Associates, a law firm.
