The phrase “skin deep” applies to many architectural award programs in this country. One program, however, stands resolutely outside these compromises. For 30 years, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture has looked at architecture in a more holistic way. Since the program’s founding in 1977, process, rather than building-as-object, has dominated the awards program. Limited in scope to a three-year cycle, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture examines submissions from a worldwide network of nominators (including the editor in chief of Architectural Record), narrows the field to a manageable number, then sends out professionals to visit the projects, whether in major cities, rain forests, or desert towns. They prepare exhaustive evaluative documents, explaining how intentions play out in real sites for real people, and thus provide a fact-based analysis for a master jury, composed of sociologists, philosophers, and artists, as well as architects a diverse group that makes the final selections.

For this year’s awards, the 10th cycle conducted by the awards program, nine projects emerged from the rigorous routine. In virtually every case, a narrative accompanied the winners that explained the scope of accomplishments: No single image would suffice. As a poignant example, one award went to the Rehabilitation of the Walled City of Nicosia, in Cyprus. Winners included representatives of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot Communities, who overcame political enmity and boundary disputes in 1979, when they met to devise a master plan for the historic city. All involved, including architects, planners, and the mayors of opposing sides of a physical wall, realized that their beloved home city was too valuable to lose. The resulting cooperation “has been successful in reversing the city’s physical and economic decline.” What other program would recognize such courageous heroism?