The Wasit Wetland Centre is the winner of Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2019. It is the first time that the United Arab Emirates receives this prestigious award. This centre, in Sharjah, it is a project that transforms a land into a wetland and acts as a driver for biodiversity and environmental education. Although the ecosystem has been restored, it is also a popular place for visitors to enjoy and learn about its natural environment.
The interior focuses on the surrounding nature: informational displays are the only adornment on the central support wall. The glass of the façade is slightly slanted to enhance landscape reflections for birds and minimize reflections for people looking outwards. Since the floor is lower than the ground outside, a concrete railing has been created that serves as a place for people to sit and watch the birds at their level. The roof is insulated and the glass is shaded as a way to combat the very hot desert climate. There are also some fabric covers placed over the poultry houses. Rainwater collected from the roof is discretely oriented to specific areas of the landscape through carefully placed gutters that are camouflaged by landscape elements.
The Aga Khan Architecture Award, created in 1977 by Aga Khan, distinguishes and encourages projects that have successfully addressed the needs and ambitions of communities where there is a significant presence of Islamic societies. The awards celebrate projects that respond particularly to their context and the cultural needs of the inhabitants.
Site area: 200 000m2
Ground floor area: 2534m2
Occupancy: 2015
Privacy policy:
• Personal data filled out on contact forms or other forms of the website, serves only to respond to the customer's request and only that, not being used for any databases or other purposes.
Data Protection Policy:
• For our company the protection of customer data is fundamental, fully agreeing with the new European Law and others to come, in this sense we made an investment where we installed a dedicated SSL certificate that encrypts any information placed on the website, you can notice that the Our site is listed as Safe Link.
Cookie Policy:
• The cookies used on the website are only Essential Cookies, these cookies are essential to access the pages of the site and allow only browsing the site, not collecting any user data or browsing.