Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, has received an honorary fellowship by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
The Riba Fellowship Awards are given in recognition of services to architecture, rather than to architects or designers. Others honoured this year include Yana Peel, chief executive of Serpentine Galleries and the founder of the V&A's Design Fund, and Zina Jardaneh, the chairwoman of the board of the Palestinian Museum in Ramallah.
Sheikh Sultan has overseen sensitive, well-regarded building projects, such as the colonnaded esplanade of the American University of Sharjah campus. Recently, he rebuilt the 1970s-era Africa Hall in a European Neo-Classical style.
He has also helped to conserve historic buildings, from the heritage houses and traditional souqs that make up the Heart of Sharjah to the Flying Saucer, a 1970s popular landmark that has now been taken over by the Sharjah Art Foundation as an exhibition space. The Sharjah Museums Authority opened Bait Al Naboodah last year, after extensive restorations, to show how wealthy merchants would have lived during the pearl diving era.
Sheikh Sultan earned his PhD in history from Exeter University in 1985, and since then has been granted 19 honorary doctorates.
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