Master jury

Frank O. Gehry, Canadian architect, is the principal in charge of Frank O. Gehry and Associates, Incorporated, which he established in 1962. Mr. Gehry received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Southern California and studied city planning at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His architectural career spans three decades and has produced public and private buildings in America, Japan and, most recently, Europe. The work of Mr. Gehry has been featured in major professional publications and national and international trade journals. In 1986, an exhibition entitled The Architecture of Frank O. Gehry travelled throughout North America from Minneapolis to Atlanta, Houston, Toronto and Los Angeles, ending at the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In 1989, Mr Gehry was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize and was named a Trustee of the American Academy in Rome. In 1992, he received the Wolf Prize in Art and the Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperiale Award in Architecture. Mr. Gehry received the first Lillian Gish Award in 1994, and was presented the National Medal of Arts in 1998; he was awarded the American Institute of Architecture's Gold Medal in 1999. Mr. Gehry served as a member of the 1992 Award Master Jury and the 1995 Steering Committee.

Azim Nanji is Special Advisor to the Provost at the Aga Khan University, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa, a joint partnership between His Highness the Aga Khan and the Government of Canada. He was born in Nairobi, Kenya and attended schools in Kenya and Tanzania before graduating from Makerere University in Uganda. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees in Islamic Studies from McGill University in Canada.

Professor Nanji has held several academic and administrative appointments, most recently as Senior Associate Director of the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University, where he was also lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies. From 1998 to 2008,

Professor Nanji served as Director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. In 1988, he was Margaret Gest Visiting Professor at Haverford College, and from 1989 to 1998 he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at the University of Florida. From 1974 to 1976 he was a Killam Fellow at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

Professor Nanji has published numerous books and articles on religious studies, ethics, Islam and Ismailism. His publications include a monograph on the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Building for Tomorrow (1994).

Within the Aga Khan Development Network, Professor Nanji serves as a member of the Academic and Student Affairs Committee of the AKU Board of Trustees and the Academic Advisory Committee for the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC), and as member of the Madrasa-based Early Childhood Education Programme in East Africa. He was recently appointed to the first Steering Committee of the Aga Khan Music Awards. He served as a member of the Steering Committee of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1998, 2001 and 2016, and was a member of the Master Jury for the Award in 1992.

Dogan Tekeli, a Turkish architect, has been in private practice with his partner, Sami Sisa, since 1952, when they graduated from Istanbul Technical University. Mr. Tekeli lectured in architectural design at the Maka School of Architecture and Engineering of Istanbul Technical University, and was president of the Chamber of Turkish Architects for one term in 1957. Mr. Tekeli and his partner have won more than twenty design competitions in Turkey, most of which have been realised. Among their works are the environmental design for the Fortress of Rumelia, a market complex in Istanbul (Manifaturacilar Carsisi), Lassa Tyre Factory in Izmit, and the Halkbank Headquarters in Ankara; they are presently working on an international passenger terminal for the Antalya Airport. Mr. Tekeli was a consultant to the Municipality of Istanbul from 1985-88, and is a member of the board of the Turkish Association of Consulting Engineers and Architects. The works of Sami Sisa and Dogan Tekeli are published in two monographs, Architectural Works (1974) and Projects and Buildings (1995). In 1995, Messrs. Tekeli and Sisa were awarded the 4th National Grand Prize of Architecture by the Turkish Chamber of Architects. Mr. Tekeli served as a member of the 1992 Award Master Jury and the 1995 Award Steering Committee.