Architecture in Continuity: Building in the Islamic World Today

Architecture in Continuity celebrates recent projects throughout the Islamic world that most successfully preserve indigenous forms while providing for the future. It honors the insight, imagination, and skill that brought these projects into physical reality. The Aga Khan Awards Foundation's attention to the extraordinary effort required to develop an architecture both practical and spiritual is dramatically reflected in this volume, the second of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture series. In the words of the Foundation, the architects represented here provide environments in which people can "live, work, and practice the precepts of ... faith harmoniously and to the fullest."

The eleven projects-- found in nine countries from Mali to Pakistan, from Yugoslavia to Malaysia-- range from hotels to mosques, from housing to an impressive air terminal for pilgrims to Mecca. The prizewinners show a deep respect for tradition, displayed in the historic buildings restored for contemporary purposes. Everyone connected with each project-- the architect, client, and builder, the local craftsmen, artisans, and consultants-- is honored for contributing to an integrity of purpose, to a spirit that is of and for the people.

This collection of color photographs by some of the world's finest photographers exquisitely depicts the Award-winning buildings. The introduction and three essays, by distinguished architects and architectural historians, explore the projects in terms of the pressures confronting emerging Muslim countries, the influence of the Western postindustrial world and traditional Muslim forms and values.

Sherban Cantacuzino, editor, is an architect, a former executive editor of The Architectural Review and now secretary of the Royal Fine Art Commission, London. He was a member of the master jury of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1980 and a member of the Award steering committee from 1981 to 1983. He is the author of several books, including Great Modern Architecture, New Uses for Old Buildings and (with Susan Brandt) Saving Old Buildings.