Towards public identity and climate awareness architecture

Of all of the arts and technology produced by man, architecture is the most conspicuous of them all. The search for an identity is a difficult endeavour and for a multi-cultural nation the effort is even greater. To search for one’s identity is also something of a peculiar endeavour, since it implies that one has either lost their identity or does not have a clue as to who one is. The Aga Khan Organisation gives awards to architectural projects every three years and there is a large selection criteria; but the most important ones concern the identity issue data. So, his highness the Aga Khan is interested in the heritage and identity of Islamic architecture. This study focuses on the views of architects contributing to the production of cultural identity in public architecture and analyses examples of their projects. For the purpose of this study, samples of architecture\projects that won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) were selected from a group of international architects expressing Islamic cultural identity in their projects. The methods used for data collection included an analytical framework using standardised thematical axes and the analysis of examples of contemporary international public architecture that represent the expression of cultural identity. The aim of this work and research is to clarify the duality of Identity/Climate awareness in public architecture and to define the influence of different variables and indicators on the architectural design of the public projects, such as architectural identity variables and climate data variables.