Cultural Protection Fund grantee RIWAQ has been announced as the joint winners of a key category at the UIA 2030 Award for Sustainable Architecture. The RIWAQ team were announced as the winners of Category 4: Access to Green and Public Space for their rehabilitation work in the historic centre of Qalandiya, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The UIA 2030 Award, a partnership with UN Habitat, recognises architectural achievements that advance the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda and will help to promote the project, its concept and approach.
The award invited architects around the world to submit entries for built projects which demonstrate design quality and have made significant contributions towards achievement of some of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Submissions were received from 100 projects in 33 countries.
The category which RIWAQ were jointly awarded recognises a project which has significantly contributed to the provision of access to safe, inclusive and accessible green and public space for all, consistent with the principles underpinning Target 11.7 of SDG11.
The jury praised the RIWAQ team’s work with the following citation:
‘A well-handled project bringing back a piece of history while providing a set of internal and external meeting places. The project builds beautifully on the history that is already there with materials, plants, the people and their knowledge, the building construction and history of the place. An extraordinary project by RIWAQ that reclaims a Palestinian cultural past, brings it into the present and looks to the future, at the same time educating people about materials and providing training and job opportunities for many Palestinians. The landscape, the plantings and built space for gathering together are well integrated with this sure-footed heritage project.’
RIWAQ's partners on the Qalandiya part of the project are the Qalandiya Village Council, the Qalandiya Community, the Cultural Protection Fund, the German Government through KfW and UNDP, and the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Read more about RIWAQ’s Cultural Protection Fund project, Heritage Challenging Fragmented Geography - and more about their award.
