Winners of the 2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture announced in Al Ain

Superkilen: A kilometre-long park located just north of Copenhagen city centre, Superkilen recognises and celebrates Denmark’s increasing ethnic diversity by including design elements from 60 different nationalities including a Thai boxing ring, Lebanese cedar trees, Armenian picnic benches and Spanish ping-pong tables. Designed by the arts group Superflex with the collaboration of Denmark’s Bjarke Ingels Group and Topotek1, a German firm of landscape architects, the park was officially opened in June 2012. Courtesy Aga Khan Award for Architecture

Tabiat Pedestrian Bridge: An example of a piece of infrastructure with a social as well as a practical purpose, the Tabiat Bridge has become one of the most popular public spaces in Tehran. Designed by Iranian architect Leila Araghian, the 270-metre-long structure, Iran’s second-longest pedestrian bridge, was completed in 2014. Designed as a place as much as a crossing point, the Tabiat is the latest in a long line of occupied bridges in Iran that includes the Marnan, Shahrestan and Si-o-Seh Pol bridges in Isfahan. Courtesy Aga Khan Award for Architecture

Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs: At first sight, the Zaha Hadid-designed Issam Fares Institute appears to confront its immediate context on the historic campus at the American University of Beirut. But despite its top-heavy appearance, the building actually makes every effort to accommodate its immediate surroundings, using its over-sized cantilever and a series of ramps to wind its way around the existing landscape and mature trees. Courtesy Aga Khan Award for Architecture

Friendship Centre: A rural training and community centre established by a Bangladeshi NGO, the Friendship Centre in Gaibandha takes its inspiration from ancient Buddhist temples while using traditional cooling, shading and ventilation techniques to create building that is contemporary, sustainable and highly energy efficient. Constructed and finished primarily of just one material, local handmade brick, the centre was designed and built by the Dhaka-based architect Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury. Courtesy Aga Khan Award for Architecture

Hutong Children’s Library & Art Centre: In recent years the traditional hutongs, or courtyard houses, of Beijing have been threatened with demolition or transformed by redevelopment, but the Micro-Yuan’er provides an example of the ways in which tradition and modernity can coexist. By embracing the informal structures that were added to the courtyard over time by the hutong’s residents, the ZAO/standardarchitecture-designed art centre and children’s library recognises the value of the buidlings existing patterns of use. Courtesy Aga Khan Award for Architecture

A vibrant urban park that celebrates the diversity of Copenhagen’s migrant communities, a think tank whose headquarters float above the historic precincts of the American University of Beirut and a Beijing children’s library whose concrete walls have been coloured with black Chinese ink are among the six winners who will share one of the world’s most prestigious architecture prizes.

The US$1 million Aga Khan Award for Architecture is awarded every three years to projects that are judged to set new standards of excellence while addressing the needs of communities in which Muslims or Islamic heritage have a significant presence.

Selected by a master jury from 348 nominated projects, the winners of the Award's 2014-2016 cycle are: Superkilen, a 30,000 m2 park in Copenhagen, Denmark; the Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh; the Tabiat Pedestrian Bridge in Tehran, Iran; the Micro Yuan'er children's library and art centre in Beijing, China; the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon and a rural training centre built for an NGO, Friendship, in Gaibandha, Bangladesh.

The assessment, documentation, selection and judging process for each cycle takes three years, the Award has documented more than 9,000 building projects since it was established by the Aga Khan in 1977, and unusually for an award of its type the final prizes are given to projects as a whole and not simply to their architect.

“We see architecture as a collaboration between the architect, the client, the builders and the end users,” said Farrokh Derakhshani, the director of the award. “Each makes a contribution to the project’s achievement and it’s the combination of these contributions that make each of the projects an exemplar.”

Previous winners of the award have included the Azem Palace in Damascus, the National Assembly Building in Dhaka, the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

The announcement of the winners of the latest cycle, the 13th to have been awarded since 1980, was made at Al Ain’s Al Jahili Fort a full month ahead of the winner’s ceremony, which will be held at the historic monument in early November. Awaidha Murshed Al Marar, chairman of the Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport, was also in attendance.

In hosting the ceremony, Al Jahili joins an illustrious list of past venues that include the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, the citadel of Aleppo in Syria and the 16th-century garden tomb of the Mughal emperor Humayun in Delhi.

As Mr Derakhshani explained, the decision to hold the ceremony in Al Ain was made in recognition of its unique history and status as Unesco World Heritage Site.

“The award ceremonies have always taken place in venues that have a significant position in the history of Islamic culture and now we are very lucky to be able to add Al Ain to that list,” the award’s director said.

“Al Ain is exceptional not just for its forts but also for its landscapes and I think that holding the ceremony here will help show the history of Al Ain and also of the region, which has played an important role that people may not be aware of.”