Vision Pakistan wins top Aga Khan Award for Architecture

Dubai: Islamabad’s Vision Pakistan has been named among the seven winners of the prestigious 2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, placing Pakistan at the forefront of global recognition for socially transformative and climate-conscious design.

Developed by DB Studios, Vision Pakistan is a multistorey facility whose colourful facades draw inspiration from Pakistani and Arab crafts, while housing a pioneering charity that empowers disadvantaged youth through vocational training.

The Jury praised the building for being “full of light, spatially interesting and economically efficient,” while simultaneously creating a space that embodies hope and resilience.

The charity offers a vital ‘second chance’ to marginalised young men aged 16 to 25 who face challenges such as aggression, depression, drug use or crime. Through its year-long holistic programme, participants are trained as master tailors, taught literacy and life skills, and introduced to peace-focused interpretations of Islam. The new facility accommodates 40—50 students, tutors and staff, with flexible classrooms, dining and recreation areas, exhibition spaces, limited staff boarding, shops, and even a rooftop prayer area with a student-tended kitchen garden. A central atrium, featuring a tall anchor tree, fosters natural light, ventilation and calm, while its pierced metal screens (jaali) provide shade and privacy, echoing both local crafts and 1960s Islamabad architecture.

The Aga Khan Award, now in its 16th cycle, recognises projects that demonstrate architecture’s capacity to advance pluralism, resilience, cultural dialogue and ecological sustainability.

The 2025 winners, who will share the US$1 million prize, also include:

Khudi Bari, in various locations, by Marina Tabassum Architects — a replicable solution built with bamboo and steel for displaced communities affected by climatic and geographic changes. The Jury recognised the project’s deep ecological framing, contributing to the global advancement of bamboo as a material.

West Wusutu Village Community Centre, in Hohhot, by Inner Mongolian Grand Architecture Design Co., Ltd — a centre built from reclaimed bricks that provides social and cultural spaces for residents and artists, while addressing the cultural needs of the local multi-ethnic community, including Hui Muslims. The Jury noted that the project generates a valuable shared and inclusive communal microcosm within a rural human macrocosm.

Revitalisation of Historic Esna by Takween Integrated Community Development — a project that addresses cultural tourism challenges through physical interventions, socioeconomic initiatives and innovative urban strategies, transforming a neglected site into a prospering historic city. The Jury acknowledged the ways the project is stimulating a historic urban metabolism to cope with the contemporary challenge of improving human conditions.

Majara Residence and Community Redevelopment, in Hormuz Island, by ZAV Architects — a colourful complex whose domes reflect the rainbow island’s ochre-rich soils, providing sustainable accommodations for tourists who visit the unique landscape of Hormuz Island. The Jury described the project as a vibrant archipelago of varying programmes that serve to incrementally build an alternative tourism economy.

Jahad Metro Plaza, in Tehran, by KA Architecture Studio — a once dilapidated station transformed into a vibrant urban node for pedestrians. The Jury highlighted the use of local handmade brick as strengthening the connection with Iran’s rich architectural heritage, while its warm subtle texture emphasises the station’s status as a new urban monument.

Wonder Cabinet, in Bethlehem, by AAU Anastas — a multipurpose, non-profit exhibition and production space built with the input of local artisans and contractors, to become a key hub for craft, design, innovation and learning. The Jury found that the building provides a model for an architecture of connection, rooted in contemporary expressions of national identity, and asserts the importance of cultural production as a means of resistance.

Launched in 1977 by His late Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture has honoured 136 projects across 16 cycles. This year’s winners, said Prince Rahim Aga Khan, “plant seeds of optimism — quiet acts of resilience that grow into spaces of belonging, where the future may thrive in dignity and hope.”