JEDDAH: Prince Sultan bin Salman, chairman of the Charitable Heritage Foundation, will attend on Tuesday a ceremony at King Saud University’s Hamad Al-Jasser Hall to distribute prizes named after him on architectural heritage.
Osama Al-Jowhari, secretary-general of the Prize Committee, said the prize is aimed at enhancing public awareness to take care of architectural heritage and encouraging students and researchers to show greater interest in the topic.
“We are aiming at changing the public perspective about architectural heritage from mere remnants of the past to a deeper vision and dimension to leave a greater impact in building nations and cultures,” he said.
Al-Jowhari stressed the importance of architectural heritage in highlighting the identity of a society and its position in history. “It is the reference to determine the origin of a nation,” he pointed out. He said many Saudi cities have lost their architectural identity in the wake of massive development projects.
“This demands taking immediate steps to take care of the country’s architectural heritage to benefit from them while making future plans,” he said. “This is the significance of the Prince Sultan bin Salman Prize,” he added.
The prize was instituted about 10 years ago during a Saudi Architectural Science Society meeting. The prize was first distributed on March 25, 2006, while the second prize distribution ceremony was held on June 24, 2008.
Prince Sultan is the chairman of the higher prize committee, which includes a number of prominent personalities including Madinah Mayor Abdul Aziz Al-Hosain, Ali Al-Qarni, dean of the College of Architecture and Planning at King Faisal University, and Salman Al-Sudairy, chairman of the Saudi Architectural Science Society.
The awards comprises six prizes: prize for architectural heritage project; prize for preserving architectural heritage; prize for architectural heritage research; prize for life-time achievement, which will be given to individuals and institutions; prize for students of architectural and planning colleges; and prize for human dimension.
Spelling out the conditions for the prize, Al-Jowhari said architectural heritage projects should be from the Kingdom and that research papers should be related to Saudi heritage.
Nominations for the prize would be received from individuals, societies and institutions. The nominations would then be shortlisted for the prize committee to select the winners.
