Tamayouz Excellence Award, one of the most recognized architecture awards in the Middle East, held it’s annual ceremony in December 2019 in Amman’s Le Royal Hotel, Jordan.
Architects and academics including some of the Middle East’s most influential architects, artists, diplomats and public figures gathered to celebrate the organisation’s most active and far-reaching programme to date.
The IAA Academician, Dr Rasem Badran was given the most coveted award of the evening, the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was originally presented to pioneers of Iraqi architecture, but which was opened to the rest of the Middle East in 2019.
“With 2019 marking the expansion of Tamayouz’s Lifetime Achievement Award beyond Iraq, we are delighted to have Dr Rasem Badran as this year’s laureate. Throughout his career, he has shown an unmatched commitment to making our cities a better place for the people living in them. He is an architect, a mentor, an advisor, an artist and, above all, a role model to younger generations and architecture students across the Middle East and greater Muslim world. He has inspired many through his architecture, kindness, humility and unyielding support of the youth.”- Ahmed Al-Mallak, Founder of Tamayouz Excellence Award and Coventry University academic.
Dr. Rasem Badran has won several international and regional competitions. He has recieved numerous architectural awards, some of them are the Nile Award in 2019 for the “Most Creative Arab Personality”, the Arab Architect Award in 2001, the Palestine Award for Architecture in 1997 and the Aga Khan Award for Islamic Architecture in 1995, for the design of the Grand Mosque of Riyadh and the redevelopment of Riyadh Old City Centre.
The programme’s other six prizes are Tamayouz Iraqi Graduation Projects Award, Tamayouz Award for International Graduation Projects, Women in Architecture and Construction Award, Middle Eastern Architectural Personality of the Year – Mohamed Makiya Prize, the Rifat Chadirji Prize and the Dewan Award for Architecture.
In the director’s closing remarks, the ceremony was dedicated to Safaa Alsaray and the innocent demonstrators who have lost their lives in the October uprising in Iraq.
