06 10 06 - Hraztan Zeitlian's Project for Saudi Arabia wins 2006 American Architecture Award

· Hraztan Zeitlian's Project for Saudi Arabia wins 2006 American Architecture Award
"The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design" announced in September 2006 that STRUERE’s Hilal (Half Moon) project, a polemical competition entry for the architectural design of the Headquarters Building for the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was chosen as a recipient of the prestigious 2006 American Architecture Award. Hilal was chosen along with twenty two other entries from several hundred submissions to the Museum’s Award Program by US and international architecture firms. Other winners included such firms as Herzog & De Meuron, SOM, Michael Maltzan Architecture, etc. Why this project matters: In this post-9-11 age of the conflict of civilizations, this western project for an Islamic institution is an important critical engagement of Islamic culture in imagining a new emergent architecture for the 21st century. The project embodies the very type of much needed cultural engagement and dialogue that leads to mutual understanding and enrichment between cultures in lieu of conflict.

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