Karachi

Rescuing survivors of a disaster is possibly one of the toughest jobs one can do, and given the frequency of both natural and man-made disasters in Pakistan, rescue workers stand at constant vigil to protect citizens. Rozina Qadir, is one such worker who has been volunteering for people’s safety for over two years now.

At the age of 35, Rozina defies the stereotype that only men are fit for search and rescue operations. During each of her operations, Rozina’s life is on the line, but she faces all such missions fearlessly. She is one of nine females in a team of 40 members of FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance, an international crisis and response and disaster risk reduction agency, which has been working in Pakistan for over a decade now.

FOCUS was founded in 1998 by the Ismaili community and is affiliated with the Aga Khan Development Network in Pakistan. Operating in Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar, the Northern Areas and Chitral, the team is trained in urban, mountain, avalanche, and water search and rescue.

More than their rigorous training, what is surprising is the commitment of these workers – all of whom are volunteers. From Karachi alone there are 20 members comprising professionals, students, and housewives. “I had always wanted to help humanity in some way, but when my children were younger, I knew I could not engage in an emergency operation. Now that they are older, I feel its time I give something back to society,” said Rozina, now a mother of three teenaged children.

Amyn Dossa, Chairman FOCUS Pakistan, believes it is all about commitment. “You can only become a rescue worker if you understand the value of human life and are committed towards serving humanity. No one can force or train you to be one unless you are convinced from within,” he said. He added that the team has been trained with the help of international rescue teams, including Avalanche and fire-fighting rescue workers from Sweden and France.

Moreover, Rapid UK regularly visits to train the Pakistani rescue team. Dossa, however, stressed that it is not just training that the workers need. “Possessing the right equipment and technical expertise is just as essential.”

Citing the example of the recent Marriott bomb blast in Islamabad, he said that government rescue teams were unable to evacuate the top floors of the hotel because they lacked the sophisticated equipment needed to carry out rescue operations.

In the aftermath of the October 2005 earthquake, FOCUS provided relief to victims initially in Margalla Towers, Islamabad and later in Balakot and Muzaffarabad. The team was also present in the recent Balochistan earthquake in October 2008. “Before the rescue operation begins,” said Dossa, “a Disaster Assessment Response Team first carries out the initial damage and needs assessment in the area after which the rescue team follows through.”

The team has not only responded to the disasters within the country, but also in neighbouring countries including China (during the May 2008 earthquake) and India (during the 2004 tsunami). Dossa added that the government recently approached FOCUS to train CDGK’s Urban Search and Rescue team, and is working in collaboration with the government’s National Disaster Management Authority. “It is difficult to work in isolation, and such efforts should be collective. In areas where FOCUS does not have access, we work in assistance with the Army too.”

When not working in disaster-struck areas, the team shifts its focus to disaster-prone areas of the country through its PMP (Prevention, Mitigation and Preparedness) programme. “Through the PMP programme, we have trained communities in ‘red zone’ areas of Gilgit and Chitral – two naturally hazardous regions of the country,” said Dossa, adding that people residing in these strong seismic zones were earlier unaware of the risks of living in the area. “An attitude change has been noticed.

People are now aware of the importance of such training, and this awareness in itself is a powerful source of motivation,” he said. This degree of self-reliance has helped women in the area overcome their fear too. “They feel safer and better prepared now,” he added.

During the training programme, necessary equipment is stored in each participating village as well. A standard emergency stockpile comprises blankets, shovels, tarpaulins, tents, ropes, torches, batteries, axes, bamboo poles, crowbars and first aid kits. “Satellite telephones for emergency communications have also been introduced.” When asked why more people have not volunteered for the programme in a span of ten years, Dossa explained: “The problem is that we do not value human life as we should. The need for more rescue teams will not be realised until we educate people and convince them to come forward.”

Keeping in mind the climate change and severe weather conditions, natural disasters across the world are expected to rise in the coming years, including Pakistan. “Urban and rural communities are equally vulnerable. We need to prepare ourselves so we can help minimise the impact of disasters.” For this, Dossa suggests that more volunteers like Rozina, irrespective of their gender or profession, should come forward.

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/ daily_detail.asp?id=153584

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Aga Khan IV is a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. The Aga Khan succeeded his grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan, to become the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims. He has spent his life working to strengthen the Muslim community through his belief that the ethic of Islam “requires members of the faith to contribute to improving the quality of all human life.”

Early Days

Karim Aga Khan IV was born to Prince Aly Khan and Princess Tajuddawlah Aly Khan on December 13, 1936 in Geneva, Switzerland. For four years during World War II, he lived with his brother and parents in Nairobi, Kenya, where he received a religious education. At the end of the war, the family returned to Europe. He attended Le Rosey School in Switzerland where he concentrated on learning Arabic, Urdu and Islamic history. Upon graduation, he enrolled at Harvard and earned a BA Honors Degree in Islamic history in 1959.

In 1954, under the direction of his grandfather, sitting Imam Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan, the Aga Khan and his brother, Prince Amyn, traveled to the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent and East African countries to observe traditions of the Muslim faith.

Three years later, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan died, leaving these instructions: “I should be succeeded by a young man who has been brought up and developed during recent years and in the midst of the new age and who brings a new outlook on life to his office as Imam.” For those reasons, he appointed his grandson Karim, instead of his own son, to succeed to the title of Aga Khan.

The Aga Khan took a year off from Harvard to visit a variety of Ismaili communities before his appointment as Imam. He was named to the position at ceremonies held in Nairobi, Bombay, Kampala, Dar-es-Salaam and Karachi.

Notable Accomplishments

Since becoming Imam, the Aga Khan has worked to facilitate the well-being of Ismaili Muslims and their communities, which are found in 25 countries worldwide. To implement these initiatives, the Aga Khan created the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), an organization that is divided into nine separate agencies including The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, Aga Khan University and the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance.

In addition to serving as a spiritual leader for the world’s 15 million Ismaili Muslims, the Aga Khan has also developed and personally maintains a fortune in excess of $1 billion. Most of Khan’s investments are in Africa and Asia. According to The Independent, these small and medium-sized enterprises were “set up as engines of employment to promote economic self-reliance among the poorest people.” In addition, the Imam heads the world’s largest private aid agency, the Aga Khan Development Foundation, which offers developing countries $300 million a year for rural development, education and health care.

The Rest of the Story

The Aga Khan is regarded by the Ismaili Muslims as the final authority on interpreting the Quran. According to CNN, one religious scholar even remarked that he is “more powerful than the pope.” The Aga Khan recently visited the United States to promote his agenda of narrowing the gap between the Western world and Islam—a project he has approached through partnerships with American universities. One of the main themes the Aga Khan has focused on when describing the difficult relations between Islam and the West is a “clash of ignorance,” rather than a clash of cultures, beliefs or faiths.

In a 2006 interview, the Aga Khan articulated his beliefs about Islam and the West, referring to Islam as “a faith of reason,” stating that he believes Islamic terrorism results from “[u]nsolved political conflicts, frustration and, above all, ignorance. Nothing that was born out of a theological conflict.”

Source: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/
happy-birthday/2008/Dec/Aga-Khan-IV.html

“I would like to extend warm birthday wishes to His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan.

As a spiritual leader of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim people, the Aga Khan is an extraordinary example of compassion and tolerance. This is most evident in the Aga Khan Development Network, which he founded and now chairs. The network, which works towards social, economic and cultural development in Asia and Africa, will be headquartered in Ottawa at a new Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat. This stunning building was officially opened by the Aga Khan and Prime Minister Harper just a few days ago on December 6. I am proud that Canada was chosen to house such a significant structure, the first of its kind in the world.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with the Aga Khan several times, most recently during his latest visit to Canada. Each time, I was impressed by a man who has done so much for the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim people and humanity. In the words of Prime Minister Harper, “his name has become synonymous with humanitarian aid and development in countries beset by conflict and poverty. Just as importantly, he has worked tirelessly as a bridge-builder between faiths and cultures.”

His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan is truly an inspiration and I wish him a long, healthy and blessed life.”

Source: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/
Citizenship-And-Immigration-Canada-929781.html

The Aga Khan, the Ismaili Muslim spiritual leader who ended an eight-day Canadian tour in Vancouver less than two weeks ago, is back in Ottawa today to open a new architectural landmark on Sussex Drive.

The $50-million building is to be the permanent home of the Ismaili Imamat delegation - in effect, an embassy for representatives of his 15 million followers who are scattered in 25 or 30 countries around the globe.

It’s the first such Ismaili delegation anywhere, though another is planned for Portugal, and the Aga Khan says more will be eventually built in other places.

Canada got the first one, he said in an interview during his earlier visit, because it has long been a strong partner of Ismailis.

“We wanted to start having a significant presence in the capital, with all our institutions established in the capital and being able to do two things.

“One is to be able to serve Canada, insofar as we can,” he said. “Secondly, it’s to create even greater relationships between Canada and what we are doing in various parts of the world.”

This relationship initially focused on helping needy Ismailis, but has expanded to encompass people of widely differing cultures and faiths.

It began in the early 1970s under former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, who personally worked with the Aga Khan to pave the way for Ismaili immigrants who were being driven from their homes in newly independent parts of eastern Africa. This was highly successful, as the new immigrants quickly found financial success and integrated into the life of their new country. Thus it quickly evolved into Canada supporting many of the good works undertaken in the developing world by agencies of the $500-million-a-year Aga Khan Development Network. Various AKDN agencies, including the Aga Khan Foundation Canada, will be housed in the new delegation building.

It was designed by the renowned Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, with Moriyama & Teshima of Toronto. Though it’s not a public building, it will be unfenced and inviting - a rarity on the street that is home to Canada’s prime minister and has come to be lined with virtual fortresses, such as the Saudi Arabian embassy next door.

The Aga Khan has long been a champion of thoughtful architecture, and he asked that the design take its inspiration from the qualities of a rock crystal. The result is a simple rectilinear structure resting on a granite podium and featuring an asymmetric, crystalline dome, a huge interior atrium to host public events, and an outdoor courtyard. The exterior is white neoparies, a modern material that changes colour with the changes in natural light.

The building occupies about a third of the one-hectare site. The rest will be publicly accessible landscaped grounds.

It is one of four Aga Khan building projects under way in Canada.

Also in Ottawa is the Global Centre for Pluralism, being built in the former Canadian War Museum. It’s to be an international centre for research, education and exchange about the values, practices and policies that underpin pluralist societies. Two other buildings are planned as part of a $200-million complex in Toronto. An Ismaili community centre and place of worship will share a seven-hectare site with a new Aga Khan Museum dedicated to acquiring, preserving and displaying artifacts from various periods and places relating to the intellectual, cultural, artistic and religious heritage of Islam.

Source: http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1039409

Six years ago, the Aga Khan presented architects with an unusual challenge: create for him a headquarters in Ottawa that was both transparent and translucent, pleasing and confusing, mysterious, esoteric and ethereal. The budget was impressive, and the demands were exacting. The stunning $54-million structure that resulted officially opens today. Here, according to Maria Cook, who has spoken with the designers and builders and toured the building, is how it came to be.
Maria Cook, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Saturday, December 06, 2008
In October 2002, Fumihiko Maki, a distinguished architect, received an unusual letter at his Tokyo office. It was written on behalf of Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Ismaili Muslims. The Aga Khan, as he is known, had appointed Mr. Maki to design a building in Ottawa. It would be the first in the world to represent him and the Aga Khan Development Network, which supports social, economic and cultural projects in developing countries. The three-page letter, sent from his château outside of Paris, outlined the Aga Khan’s vision.

“The goal is to create a building which causes the viewer to wonder how different elements and different planes relate to each other, how they work together to tickle the eye,” the Aga Khan said, proposing that Mr. Maki take inspiration from rock crystal, the mineral quartz in its clear and colourless form. “In a rock crystal the cuts and angles permit both transparency as well as translucency,” the letter said. “It pleases and confuses the eye by its internal planes running at different angles, creating a sense of visual mystery. The … building in a sense should be somewhat mysterious and visually nearly esoteric. It should not be blatant but ethereal, not obvious but difficult to captivate.”

The 80-year-old Mr. Maki has a searching mind and modest personality. He is a modernist who fuses eastern and western cultures in his meticulous architecture. He knew this was not going to be easy. Although his work includes numerous international projects, including a skyscraper at Ground Zero in New York, he had never before built in Canada. The site wasn’t perfect; the climate hard on buildings.

A multi-faceted glass dome evokes rock crystal. It vaults over a large central atrium, seen in model below.
Jean Levac, The Ottawa Citizen

The exterior courtyard is visible from Boteler Street. Plantings include evergreen junipers, boxwood hedges and silverberry trees.
Photograph by : Pat McGrath, The Ottawa Citizen

Interior: A cast aluminum screen encloses the atrium. The pattern is a double layer of repeating hexagons and is inspired by Islamic design. Officials prepare for today’s opening ceremony.
Photograph by : Pat McGrath, The Ottawa Citizen

And how would he achieve the precision and craft for which he is famous? The North American building culture, unlike Europe and Asia, typically favours speed and frugality over workmanship and durability. Indeed, a 2004 National Research Council study of the Canadian construction industry said “many of the sector’s clients are not satisfied with the overall value of its products and the quality of its services.” The cost per square metre for the proposed $54-million Ottawa building would be twice that of the new Canadian War Museum on LeBreton Flats. If this building were a suit, its tailoring would be more Savile Row than Sears.

Mr. Maki and his 47-year-old associate, Gary Kamemoto, read and re-read the Aga Khan’s letter. They were moved by its beauty and they struggled to discern its meaning. Mr. Maki placed it on his desk in a plastic folder.

“It was not one-dimensional,” says Mr. Kamemoto. “I found it to be extremely poetic and visionary. It invited a tremendous amount of creative imagination. This isn’t the kind of letter that you receive and put away in a file. We all had it on our desks and we referred to it often. It was our job to convert this into a piece of architecture.”

As word got out, people’s curiosity grew. Who was the Aga Khan, and why was he setting up shop in Ottawa? Born in Geneva, he is a British citizen who divides his time between Switzerland and France. Comparisons have been made to the Dalai Lama, the head of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as George Soros, the global financier and philanthropist.

A 2002 article in the Independent newspaper in Britain said: “The Aga Khan seems to exist in another realm altogether — self-styled citizen of the world, not quite royal but more than human, a man who is everywhere but comes from nowhere … businessman, sportsman, jet-setter, philanthropist and quasi-diplomat with an indeterminate role in the current crisis between Islam and the West.”

He enjoys personal wealth thanks to family inheritance and business investments. His philanthropic institutions, funded by his followers, spend about $600 million a year, mainly in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The significance of the Aga Khan’s status is rooted in the history of Islam. The religion handed down to the prophet Mohammed has two main divisions, Sunnism and Shiism. Ismaili Muslims are the second-largest Shia community. Their imams, or spiritual leaders, are regarded as direct descendants of Mohammed.

They have carried the title “Aga Khan” (Lord Commander) since the Shah of Iran conferred it in the 19th century, and “His Highness” since Queen Elizabeth granted the title in 1957. The current Aga Khan, now 71, became the 49th hereditary imam when he was a 20-year-old student at Harvard University.

The Aga Khan’s friendship with Canada goes back to the 1970s, when Pierre Trudeau’s government welcomed Ismailis who had been expelled from Uganda. There are about 80,000 Ismaili Muslims in Canada.

The new two-storey building in Ottawa, which opens today, is called the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat. Its function is secular, not religious. It will serve as the headquarters of Aga Khan Foundation Canada, a non-profit agency that supports social development projects in Africa and Asia.

It includes a library and offices, as well as a residence and office for the Aga Khan’s use during visits. The building will host public seminars, receptions and exhibitions. About 100 people will work inside.

The Aga Khan’s interest in architecture is far-reaching. His activities include the restoration of historic monuments and a triennial architecture award that bestows $500,000 upon creators of outstanding new designs in societies where Muslims have a presence.

- - -

In May 2002, Mr. Maki stepped off the plane from Tokyo at the Ottawa airport and went directly to the building site on Sussex Drive. It faces the Ottawa River and is bounded by King Edward Avenue, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Boteler Street in Lowertown.

The space Mr. Maki was investigating was irregular. From Sussex to Boteler it sloped four metres, a full storey. It was sunken below the level of Sussex Drive; putting traffic at eye level. And it sat beside the on- and off-ramps to the Macdonald Cartier Bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau.

Mr. Maki walked and drove around the area. As he analyzed and photographed the site from various vantage points, including from the Quebec side, he remembered his first visit to Ottawa in 1953. He had been working as a young architect in New York, and had taken the night train to spend Christmas with an uncle at the Japanese Embassy.

“People were skating on the canal and rivers and it was very quiet,” he recalls.

The Aga Khan Foundation Canada bought the one-hectare site from the National Capital Commission in 2000 for $5.24 million. One of the few remaining undeveloped sites on Sussex Drive, it is a prestigious address shared with the residences of the prime minister and governor general, and located along the capital’s ceremonial route, known as Confederation Boulevard.

Mr. Maki observed that a key characteristic of the site is visibility. Open on three sides, it can be seen from many directions and distances. “Gradually, we tried to interpret the idea to a design,” he says. “Mostly, in architecture, it is a long search to arrive at the right sort of images.”

He began to sketch. The building would sit on a horizontal granite podium to compensate for the change in grade. It would have two main entrances, from Sussex Drive and Boteler Street. Instead of windows on Sussex, a second-floor terrace would present views of the Ottawa River and the Gatineau Hills, while reducing sight lines to the road.

“Rock crystal is only a metaphor,” Mr. Maki thought. “It has a very hard surface. It should be reflective to light.” He brought his wife’s diamond ring to the office to demonstrate the effect of light, and the architects studied samples of rock crystal, or suisho in Japanese.

“What was very interesting to us is that it’s a very ephemeral object,” Mr. Kamemoto says. “It’s constantly changing. What we observed is complete transparency in some areas and complete opacity in others. Then there are infinite numbers of translucency.

“The way the light interacts with it from different angles, you don’t see an object. You see the light bounce within it. We thought that was, perhaps, the spirit of the building which he was asking us to provide.” When Mr. Maki won the 1993 Pritzker prize, the highest honour in architecture, the jury said: “He uses light in a masterful way.”

To create the feeling of rock crystal, he envisioned a building wrapped in a variety of types of glass. The main facades would be clad in white Neoparies, a crystallized glass material that has a soft, pure colour and smooth, marble-like texture. Made in Japan, its particles reflect surrounding colours.

“It gives a very hard edge and formal disposition, but also makes the building reflective to light,” says Mr. Maki.

The side walls would be arranged in alternating bands of transparent and translucent glass. And the building would contain an atrium topped by an asymmetrical glass dome.

“It was so critically important to fully embrace and understand the essence of the rock crystal … to create a somewhat contemplative as well as emotional experience in the final building,” says Mr. Kamemoto.

On Dec. 27, 2002, they presented the design to the Aga Khan and his advisors at his estate in Aiglemont, France, in a boardroom that overlooks a landscaped courtyard.

“He felt that the vision was actually very close to what he was imagining,” says Mr. Kamemoto. “So this became the starting point for the design process to unfold.”

Almost immediately, they ran into a serious setback. The dome emerges from the building to an apex of 17 metres. But buildings on Sussex Drive are only allowed to be 11 metres high, a limit set by the National Capital Commission.

Mr. Kamemoto was dispatched to Ottawa early in 2003. He needed to understand the context for the new building.

Along Confederation Boulevard he snapped pictures of the panorama of varying architectural shapes from the past, including the Parliament buildings, the National Gallery of Canada, the Lester B. Pearson building. “What distinguished them was that they had unique roofs,” he observed. “And they all serve to complement the silhouette of Parliament Hill, which is very vertical.”

By then, Maki and Associates had selected their Canadian architecture partners, Moriyama & Teshima of Toronto, designers of the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo. Together, they presented their case to the NCC and to the City of Ottawa.

They argued successfully that the Delegation roof would add to the artistic character of the ensemble on Sussex Drive. Furthermore, it would not block sight lines to Parliament Hill.

Several months later, in the spring, workers spray-painted an outline of the building onto the site. Posts were erected at the corners of the planned building, to the exact height of the walls. The arm of a mobile crane extended to what would be the height of the atrium.

The Aga Khan flew to Ottawa to confirm the layout and shape. It would be an 8,570-square-metre structure, including an underground parking garage.

With his approval in hand, the next step was to assemble a team of professionals and tradespeople who could make the project happen. Mr. Maki knew that collaborating with strangers is difficult: “To co-ordinate different trades is a very chaotic situation.” Especially given the intricacy of the design.

- - -

In contrast to the simple rectilinear building below, the glass dome is shaped by complex geometry. It is composed of multi-faceted angular planes. Within the dome is a layer of glass-fibre fabric that appears to float over the atrium.

John Kooymans, a 46-year-old structural engineer at Halcrow Yolles of Toronto, was assigned to design a structural skeleton to support the roof. He admits that, after the initial thrill of a challenging project, “there’s a bit of anxiety about getting to the point where you want to be.”

The solution wasn’t obvious. The roof had to span 25 metres. It had to be strong enough to bear 40 tonnes of glass, plus the weight of snow and of window washers, and to resist the force of wind.

At the same time, the skeleton had to be slim and light for structural elegance. “This shape is not exactly structurally friendly,” says Mr. Kooymans.

“It’s not a perfect dome or a flat surface that you can span across with a simple truss. We weren’t allowed to alter the geometry very much. We were challenged to try and make this shape stand up and minimize the amount of solid elements to do so.”

After five or six tries, the engineering group proposed an innovative all-in-one system. They created a grid of solid steel bars braced with tension rods below. The glass panels attach to the grid with silicone. There are no window dividers, so the outer glass skin is flat and flush. Only the glass is visible.

Typically, glass is framed in aluminum first and then affixed to a supporting structure. “What’s unusual in terms of standard practice in Canada is that we eliminated the aluminum frame system and integrated the glass and steel structure together in one system,” says Mr. Kooymans.

Mr. Kooymans designed the roof for Ottawa’s hot, humid summers, freezing winters and heavy snowfall. “A transparent building creates all kinds of problems for you,” says Mr. Kamemoto.

The engineer specified three layers of glass for the roof to provide extra insulation; a low-iron glass for greater transparency, and glass printed with tiny ceramic dots to filter sunlight.

There are only a handful of companies in the world that can provide such sophisticated glazing, and Josef Gartner of Germany is one of them. However, its engineers said it was impossible to meet the tight schedule. They said it would take two years to make a steel roof structure of this type, supply 657 glass panels for the roof and walls, and deliver and install it all. The project managers in Ottawa wanted it done in less than a year.

Construction manager Tony Cook, of PCL Constructors, told them the atrium is tied to everything in the building. “Before we can do drywall or interior work, we need the roof.”

A month later, in December 2006, Mr. Kamemoto was in Germany presenting the project to Josef Gartner staff at the firm’s Wurzburg plant. An animated 3-D rendering made them feel like they were flying through the building in a plane. At the end, they applauded.

Although the company had produced glass for some of the biggest names in architecture (Herzog & deMeuron, Richard Rogers, Jean Nouvel), this was the first time an architect had come to them to explain the design.

“It was quite inspiring,” says project manager Dirk Schreiter. “It gave us a real view of the architecture and the thinking behind every aspect of the building. It gave everybody the feeling they are really part of the team.”

To save time, the Germans travelled once a month to Ottawa to meet with Mr. Kamemoto. He reviewed shop drawings and answered questions. Revisions and approvals were streamlined.

Mr. Cook kept three clocks in his office, to track time in Germany, Japan and Ottawa. “I was constantly thinking, ‘Can I call Gary right now and expect a response?’ You’re getting questions from Germany coming to Canada that had to be answered in Japan.”

The roof, he says, embodies the Canadian values of pluralism admired by the Aga Khan. “Originally designed in Toronto, engineered in Germany, steel manufactured in Poland, glass from Austria and put together by Canadian ironworkers. We have a pluralistic project.”

It was a relief when the roof was installed before the first snow. But still the architects worried. They tried to anticipate problems and to take precautions, such as producing extra drawings. Mr. Kamemoto made 30 trips to Ottawa. A Moriyama & Teshima architect visited the site daily.

“The building of this was going to be equally as challenging as realizing the vision, and in the end they’re a single thing,” says Mr. Kamemoto.

- - -

Four weeks before opening day, men in hardhats drill, hammer and saw. “I thought this was going to be a nightmare,” admits 53-year-old carpenter Noel Schiller, crouched beside his tools and an unfinished door. “It was an adjustment to realize the degree of accuracy that had to be maintained.

“Everything is on a grid. The grout lines (tile joints) have to line up with the 10-millimetre reveal lines (grooves) in the panels.

“Usually buildings don’t have that, so you can cheat. You can hold things out of plumb maybe an eighth of an inch. But here, everything has to be bang-on. Plumb, square, true.

“It’s been a challenge for me,” he tells Mr. Kamemoto.

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’ve never worked on doors like this before. The high-end finishes, the hardware. I knew right away when I saw the concealed hardware what you were trying to achieve. A clean, crisp look, with fine lines, uncluttered.”

Mr. Kamemoto looks pleased. “I think the precision you’ve brought to this building is extraordinary,” he says.

“To have that connection to the workmen is very important,” Mr. Kamemoto says later. “If you can actually tap the passion that they have. No one likes to think that they are just a component part of a process. Inherently, people have pride in what they do.”

The architects decided to use wood extensively on the interior after learning that Canadians do fine millwork. Light-coloured maple appears in wall panelling, doors, cabinets and furniture.

Early in the design stage, the Canadian architects toured Mr. Maki’s buildings in Japan to look at materials and building techniques. “We wanted them to advise us what is possible,” says Mr. Kamemoto. “We didn’t want to go down a route asking for the impossible.”

The firms applying to be construction managers visited Japan to view the workmanship in Mr. Maki’s buildings. Mr. Kamemoto asked them: “Does this scare you? Do you think that’s possible?”

Once construction was under way, the architects worked closely with the crew. “It comes a little bit from our culture,” explains Mr. Kamemoto. “Back home in Japan we still have a very close bond with the contractor and, typically, when a project goes under construction the architect sets up an office on site and we work together through the entire construction process.”

Still, “there are some areas where we are not really satisfied,” says Mr. Maki. “Some people didn’t read our drawings carefully so we wasted time and money. Some people did not honour their word. They said they would finish by a certain date and they didn’t. That’s a different culture. That’s one reason construction was delayed.” The building was supposed to be finished at the end of July.

Like the carpenters, the stone contractor, Gem Campbell of Ottawa, worked with great precision. “In a regular project, you live with a little more tolerance, whereas here they were very strict,” says Diego Rota, a 66-year-old marble mechanic.

“This is high-end, very fine work. I told our shop not to send anything that doesn’t fit.”

The stone-cutters changed the settings on their machines to carve more finely, and they took more time.

“You can’t achieve quality by being fast unless you overlook a few things,” says Mr. Rota.

He and Mr. Kamemoto travelled together to Italy to choose the stone: blue lapis lazuli from Namibia for the outside terrace; limestone from Croatia for the courtyard; basaltina for the entrance. By ordering in person, they avoided “screw-ups” such as receiving the wrong material, says Mr. Rota.

The architects wanted travertine marble in the courtyard, but when Mr. Rota told them it didn’t weather well in Canada, they searched for a substitute with the same creamy colour.

“Maki’s office, they listen to the person with the trowel in their hand,” says Mr. Cook. “That’s rare in North America.”

Construction in Canada is big business; 12 per cent of GDP. But the National Research Council says the sector suffers from inconsistent profitability and invests too little in capital, human resources and research and development.

“Adoption of innovative solutions in the sector is widely known to be difficult,” it says.

And there is a growing labour crisis and skills shortage. In Ontario alone, the Construction Sector Council predicts a shortfall of 82,000 workers by 2015, due to retirement and increasing labour demands. Industry spokesmen say federal and provincial authorities have paid too little attention to problems in the industry.

Mr. Cook interviewed candidates prior to tendering the construction work. He asked: “Do you have the available tradespeople? What is your volume of work during the time we expect to be in construction?” He set the schedule accordingly.

“We’re often-times not realistic enough in scheduling construction projects,” says Mr. Cook. “We’ve just allowed more time because we know we have fewer people, and those fewer people can’t work seven days a week, 24 hours a day.”

Some 500 tradesmen worked on the building, trying to meet the exceptional requirements for accuracy. “In Canada there’s a striving to be close,” says Mr. Cook. “Here, everything lines up. The coordination of doing your roof parapet cap and making sure that joint lines up with the Neoparies joint on the exterior wall panel is not something you typically see in any other project.

“We used laser levels to set things up in janitor’s rooms. There is no detail that Maki says doesn’t matter. Every detail matters.

“There’s nothing like it,” he says. “I don’t think I’ll build one like it again.”

Canadian clients aren’t usually willing to pay a premium for materials and precision, he says. But that’s not to say money was no object here.

“If we overspend, something else in the world that the Aga Khan is developing will suffer,” says Mr. Cook. “That’s not acceptable.”

- - -

The official opening ceremony takes place today. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is to be among the 350 guests. Will the Aga Khan be pleased with the building?

“It should be modern and contemporary, but he also wants to have a certain Islamic ambience, particularly the interiors,” says Mr. Maki. “I tried to interpret his vision as much as possible.”

The building rests on a podium of black granite. The Neoparies cladding has a softly translucent surface like porcelain or marble. “We’re pleasantly surprised with the installation of the Neoparies,” says Mr. Kamemoto. “I think it even surpassed what we can get in Japan.”

The building is 43.5 metres wide and 87 metres long, so it would just fit on a football field. Offices and meeting rooms surround the large courtyards. Mr. Maki says these two spaces create an “inner sanctuary somewhat separated from the outside world.” The crystalline dome that vaults over the first of these courts gives a distinctive silhouette to the building.

The Aga Khan did not want security and a fence to characterize the approach to the building. Part of the site remains accessible as a landscaped park, and preserves a public path between Lowertown and Sussex Drive.

The underlying organization of the building is informed by the heritage of Islamic architecture. Mr. Kamemoto notes that the central courtyard at the Alhambra, the splendid 14th-century palace in Spain, must be discovered. “We felt that’s what the building should do. From the outside it looks dignified, quiet and stately, but once you got inside there was a sense of discovery, which was the atrium and the courtyard.”

To enter the new building from the ceremonial entrance off Sussex Drive, you cross an open forecourt to the shelter provided by the overhanging floor above. A terrace cuts into this floor, marking the location of the doors below.

The shadows made by this deep modelling set off the brilliance of the Neoparies. The vestibule leads into a hall, which opens into the atrium courtyard.

A floor of Canadian maple gives warmth and a note of welcoming domesticity to the moment of arrival. Maple strips make a pattern of 49 squares, a reference to the 49th Imam.

The space is filled with light and the play of shadows from the glazed roof. On your right the light streams in from a glass wall that joins the roof to the ground. To your left is a library.

Surrounding the atrium is a patterned screen of cast aluminum. It evokes the screens of carved marble and wood that filter light and view in historic Islamic architecture. Composed of 180 panels, the screen was made by Custom Aluminum Foundry, a family business in Cambridge, Ont. that makes sand castings for machine parts. This is their first work of art.

Continuing across the wood floor of the atrium, you have a view into the garden court. Its geometric layout recalls the chahar-bagh, or traditional Persian-Islamic walled garden, a representation of paradise.

Four paths intersect at the centre. Snow-dusted trees and shrubs stand in symmetrical rows in four raised planters. In winter, heaters in the floor will melt snow on the ground, leaving snow mounds on the planters.

“This will be the first Islamic garden with snow mounds,” laughs Mr. Kamemoto.

Walking through the building there’s an overall feeling of lightness and serenity. Furniture is either white or maple. Different types of glass have been combined to give the building an ethereal quality and varying degrees of transparency and opacity. This effect complements the dramatic play of solid and void between the courts and surrounding wings of offices.

A note of colour is provided by a wall of Venetian plaster in royal blue.

This essay in glass, the shifting translucence, luminosity and clarity that animate the building, is Mr. Maki’s response to the crystal image, the metaphor of usefulness and beauty suggested by the Aga Khan.

Rock crystal was prized for these qualities and carved into vessels by the Aga Khan’s ancestors, the Fatimids who founded Cairo in 969. “Rock crystal translucency seemed so remarkable a property that the stone was sometimes known as Busaq al-qamar, or ‘Spirit of the Moon’,” says Alnoor Merchant, of the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, England.

Three other projects are underway in Canada: The Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa will foster policy and legislation to support the developing world. The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, designed by Maki and Associates, will house exceptional collections of Islamic art. An Ismaili cultural centre is also being built in Toronto.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Maki inspected the Delegation building. “It came out better than I expected.”

The Aga Khan saw it at the same time. “He was very delighted,” reports Mr. Maki.

Online: Tour Confederation Boulevard’s new architectural masterpiece at ottawacitizen.com/photo galleries

Source: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/observer/
story.html?id=62eba74e-c926-4291-9d69-a863f011e5ae

“The community is very excited about having His Highness visit,” said Farid Damji, a volunteer with the Ismaili Council of B.C.

The Aga Khan has been spiritual leader, or Imam, to the ethnically-diverse community of Ismailis for the past 50 years.

Many of his 20,000 followers in the province are expected to gather at B.C. Place Stadium for a ceremonial afternoon.

“He will deliver a message and meet community leaders,” said Damji.

The trip is part of a worldwide tour this year. The Canadian portion runs Nov. 18-25 and Dec. 5-6.

Source: http://www.canada.com/theprovince
/news/story.html?id=a1f879fe-0e41-4bbe-
94fe-d59a0306a319

“This book is a collection of essays and poems originally written for a zine called “Qiyamat: A newsletter for friends of the Imam.” They present a unique pro-ismaili look into the Shia Imami Ismaili Mulism faith, one not found in the usually historical books on the Ismaili’s. “

In a deeply undignified start to my interview with one of the world’s most famous spiritual leaders, I am pressing my face against the glass of the Ismaili Centre in South Kensington, gesticulating wildly as I try to catch the eye of the dark-suited security man. It seems to me he is, perhaps reasonably, deliberately ignoring the madwoman outside.

As I’ve already tried pushing the locked door, I eventually stand on the street corner and rummage inelegantly in my bag to find my phone. After a long wait, I manage to get hold of a friend who works for His Highness the Aga Khan, who lets me in.

My requests for a lunch or breakfast meeting had been deflected by the Aga Khan’s aides, who gave me the unusual excuse that the leader of 20m Ismaili Muslims guards his privacy so zealously that he would be reluctant to reveal what he eats at mealtimes. So we settle on a coffee.

Tall, in a grey suit and a burgundy tie, the Aga Khan, 71, would blend seamlessly into a crowd of London commuters. He welcomes me with a smile and says, acknowledging our tricky discussions about this interview: “Not breakfast, not lunch, not dinner, but coffee. What would you like to drink?”

The room is impersonal but, as I sit down on a plush chair, I look out and see a lush flower-filled internal roof garden, a courtyard where water flows into a fountain.

I met the Aga Khan twice during my three-year stint as a reporter for the FT in Afghanistan so I am used to the atmosphere of stiff formality that surrounds him. After 51 years, he is presumably used to it too. In July 1957, at the age of 20, he took over from his grandfather as leader of the Ismailis, who are followers of the Shia Muslim tradition.

A woman brings the Aga Khan a white coffee while I opt for a cup without milk or sugar, which I try to balance on the arm of the chair and drink. I am dismayed to see no sign of anything edible.

The Aga Khan’s thoroughbred passion
As the most successful racehorse owner-breeder in France, the Aga Khan has won just about everything, several times over, writes Rachel Pagones. And while racing is a fast and furious sport – the verdict delivered in around two and a half minutes for races such as the Epsom Derby – breeding the horses for these contests can be an agonisingly slow process. Patience is the Aga Khan’s hallmark.

He inherited the business from his father, Prince Aly, and grandfather, the Aga Khan III, who bought his first thoroughbreds in Deauville in 1921 and went on to win the Epsom Derby five times. For his part, Prince Aly became the first owner in Britain to win £100,000 in a season in 1959, the year before he was killed in a car accident outside Paris.

The present Aga Khan’s “families” of broodmares often produce a top-class winner after three or four generations on the backburner. He is the least commercial of the large, independently wealthy owner-breeders, including Sheikh Mohammed, ruler of Dubai, Prince Khalid Abdullah of the Saudi royal family, and John Magnier of Coolmore Stud in Ireland, all of whom promote many of their own stallions for use by other breeders. He has only four stallions on his six properties in France and Ireland.

Money also helps. The Aga Khan’s operation breeds from its own stock, but makes a big purchase when a rare opportunity arises. The most recent was in 2005 when the Aga Khan bought the late Jean-Luc Lagardère’s bloodstock holdings, including two studs and close to 200 horses, for an industry estimate of between €40m and €50m.

The Aga Khan has had four winners of both the Epsom and Irish Derby, including Shergar, the most famous horse in Britain during his lifetime – he won the Epsom Derby by a record ten lengths in 1981 – but this achievement has been largely replaced in the public mind by the memory of the horse’s bizarre kidnapping in 1983, a year after he was retired to stud in Ireland with a valuation of £10m. The most thorough reports conclude it was an IRA plot, and the horse was killed not long afterwards, probably because the kidnappers had trouble handling him.

The Aga Khan’s current star is an unbeaten filly named Zarkava. The favourite for next weekend’s Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe, she descends from Petite Etoile, a grey filly who starred on British tracks just before and after Prince Aly’s death. Petite Etoile’s great-great-grandmother was Mumtaz Mahal, one of the first and most important horses purchased by the Aga Khan III for 9,100 guineas in 1922.

I feel slightly on show now, as there are a lot of people crowded into the room with us. There is a Paris-based PR man, an older Ismaili man and, most disconcertingly of all, a young woman with a notepad, poised to write down everything I say.

The Aga Khan wears a suit even when he’s travelling and working in Islamic countries. It’s not a look that we are used to seeing on Muslim spiritual leaders, so I decide to start by asking whether his clothing attracts criticism in the Muslim world. The woman with the notepad starts scribbling furiously. Uh-oh, I think, and I get the question thrown back to me: “You have lived in a Muslim country. Are you aware of any requirement for an Imam to wear a particular type of clothing? There are traditions but are you aware of any theological requirement?”

I ask again, and this time the Aga Khan replies, “I have never sensed that as a problem. Imams in sub-saharan Africa dress differently than Imams in the Middle East, who dress differently from Imams in central Asia.” He adds that for ceremonial occasions, he wears a traditional robe and Astrakhan hat – a look favoured by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

This question of clothing goes to the heart of the paradox of the Aga Khan. While he’s a spiritual leader to millions of Muslims, he is best-known in the west as the highest-profile racehorse owner in France, where he lives.

The other unusual thing about this spiritual leader is how staggeringly rich he is. The Aga Khan’s personal wealth is estimated at $1bn but the Ismaili community is tight-lipped about how much of the Aga Khan’s money is his own and how much is ring-fenced for religious and development work.

I ask him how he reconciles such great wealth with having so many impoverished followers in many parts of the developing world. “Well, I think first of all you have to reposition the statement about having great wealth. I would say, frankly, that’s nonsense,” he says, smiling emphatically.

What is in no doubt is that the Aga Khan comes from a privileged background. He was born Karim al-Hussayni in Geneva in 1936 and was known as Prince Karim. After school in Switzerland, he went to the US and graduated from Harvard in 1959 with a BA honours degree in Islamic history.

His parents divorced in 1949 and his father later married Hollywood actress Rita Hayworth. The couple were a favourite of the gossip columns, although the marriage did not survive long. The unwelcome spotlight at that time might be part of why the Aga Khan now guards his privacy so carefully.

The Aga Khan title was granted to the family by the Shah of Persia in the 1830s after he had married his daughter to the Aga Khan’s great-great-grandfather. The man sitting opposite me is only the fourth to hold the title. As I sip my rapidly cooling coffee, I settle back and hear how the myth of fabulous family wealth was created when the third Aga Khan, grandfather of Aga Khan IV, was given his weight in gold during his golden jubilee celebrations in 1936.

Although Aga Khan III was only 5ft 5in, he tipped the scales at 220lb and the donations added up to $125,000 – a vast fortune in 1936. The ceremony of sitting on the scales with the gold made a great impression on the British public at the time. “In the west, this was seen as some sort of fantastic ceremonial, and this was because India at the time was ceremonial.” The current Aga Khan did not have to endure anything like this during his own golden jubilee celebrations during 2007 and 2008, not least because the 1930s gold made a solid bedrock for investments.

Ismailis have also traditionally paid a tithe to their Imams. The Aga Khan tells me that money raised by Ismaili followers does not end up in his pocket. “There is a great difference between wealth which comes from the faith and is used for the faith and personal wealth used for the individual. The Imam has responsibility for significant resources but they in no way cover the needs we have, and never will,” he says.

The Aga Khan inherited shares in corporations, banks, trusts and oil from his grandfather in 1957 and, over the past five decades, he has built a vast business development network by investing in poor and conflict-torn parts of the globe. He is the key shareholder in many of the projects but his profits are reinvested in the businesses, which are often run by members of the Ismaili community.

He began with newspaper investments in east Africa in the 1960s and now runs investment ventures tightly linked to development work that funds schools, hospitals and architectural projects.

In Afghanistan, I saw how the success of the Aga Khan’s projects stood in contrast to the bumbling efforts of many western governments. He owns stakes in the country’s largest telephone network, and a five-star hotel but has also renovated ancient mosques, gardens and citadels as well as running educational and agricultural projects.

The Aga Khan says he sees his role as a venture capitalist who specialises in difficult environments, laying the foundations of projects to entice other investors. The Geneva-based Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (Akfed) runs more than 90 for-profit businesses and employs 36,000 people.

“There is no point going into economies that are wealthy and have their own resources, so we go into the really poor ones. If you try to put social development ahead of economic support, it doesn’t work. You have to do both together.

“A community whose economics don’t change is not one that can support community structures, education, healthcare, it doesn’t have the wherewithal,” he says.

The Aga Khan uses a lot of the same jargon used by development workers, mentioning “human resources” and “capacity building”. I am familiar with this way of talking from my time in Kabul but have always felt it a shame that it means that speakers often convey nothing of the real excitement involved in seeing a project take off and become an independent success.

His profits are reinvested in the Akfed businesses and the rest is paid in dividends to the other joint venture partners. These include private equity firm Blackstone, which has co-invested in a hydroelectric damn in Uganda, and Swedish telecoms group TeliaSonera, which holds a stake in Afghanistan’s largest telephone network,

Roshan has gone from strength to strength, its mobile business bolstered by the fact that it is impossible to lay landlines in a country so laced with landmines. But his five-star Serena Hotel in Kabul has attracted criticism for its opulence in a city where most people don’t have electricity and running water.

“The nature of what we do is high-risk,” the Aga Khan says, with characteristic understatement. I ask whether he thinks this long-term view is key to his success and he says that many projects can take 25 years to come to fruition. He cites a hospital in Pakistan that now produces world class doctors a quarter of a century after it opened. It would be hard to find western donors who would remain with a project for that long.

During his 51 years as Imam, he has watched the collapse of the Soviet Union, which brought Ismaili communities in central Asia back into contact with the outside world, as well as the rise of militant Islam. “Communities like the Ismailis don’t live in a vacuum,” he notes, saying that his job as Imam is to think carefully about how to address the problems in the societies his followers call home. The Ismaili diaspora is almost as widespread as the Jewish one.

I wonder whether he sees the clash between Islam and the west as the most serious global problem. “I’m unwilling to say that in these major issues today faith has been the prime driver. In my view it’s political issues that have been the prime driver,” he says. I ask whether that means they need political solutions. “Bang on,” he replies.

He believes ignorance about Islam in the west is a huge problem. “The Islamic world as an important part of our globe has really been absent from Judeo-Christian education in a strange way,” he says, asking how anyone can be considered properly educated in the west when they know nothing about Islam.

We have to finish, so I ask what he thinks his legacy will be, which provokes laughter and the response that he doesn’t have the faintest idea.

As I switch off the tape recorder and prepare to leave, he visibly relaxes and begins talking about Afghanistan in a far more open way, reminiscing about the Mujahideen leaders he knew during the country’s civil war. We step out into the roof garden, where running water blocks out the roar of traffic. The peace lasts only a moment – the Aga Khan always has more meetings – and I have to go in search of lunch.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2e55dd3a-8b59-11dd-b634-0000779fd18c.html

“We don’t do enough to illustrate to the peoples of our world the greatness of Islamic civilisations,” the 71-year-old billionaire spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims said in an interview.

The Aga Khan, who last year celebrated 50 years as head of his community, said at a recent ceremony capping work in Aleppo that his goal is to educate the world on the wealth of Muslim culture.

“Because they don’t know our history, they don’t know our literature, they don’t know our philosophy, they don’t know the physical environment in which our countries have lived, they view the ummah (the Muslim nation) in terminology which is completely wrong.”

The 13th century citadel is in the heart of Aleppo - one of the world’s oldest inhabited cities at the crossroads of ancient trade routes - and is a World Heritage Site along with Saladdin’s castle. Battered by a long history of bombardments, pillage and earthquakes, the citadel’s surrounding walls and some of its 19 towers were strengthened while two mosques, a hammam or bathhouse and a palace were also restored.

For five years dozens of workers restored the minaret of a mosque, baths and the imposing palace within the castle of Saladdin, originally built by the Crusaders on a windswept mountain ridge. The Masyaf fortress is a mediaeval eagles’ nest which served as home to the Assassins, contract killers who were an offshoot of the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam who were persecuted as infidels by the dominant Sunni Muslims.

General conservation work was carried at the rugged site, and part of an outer wall was rebuilt. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture carried out the work in close collaboration with Syria’s antiquities department, and also revamped the landscape around all three sites to make it more tourist-friendly.

“My interest in working in Syria is to take the various lead countries of the ummah and say, let’s start, let’s move together, let’s revive our cultures so that modernity is not only seen in the terminology of the West, but in the intelligent use of our past,” the Aga Khan said.

His visit to Syria was part of a tour of some 35 nations that began in July last year to mark his Golden Jubilee, or 50 years since the Aga Khan became leader of the community in July 1957, succeeding his grandfather.

Fuelled by his enormous wealth the Aga Khan - who ranks 11 on the Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest royals with a fortune estimated at one billion dollars - has since 1967 also led an apolitical, secular foundation. The Aga Khan Development Network is involved in projects from promoting health to education, architecture and the rehabilitation of historic cities.

Helping the poor to improve their lives is also high on the Aga Khan’s agenda. As a youth he dreamt of becoming an architect before graduating instead from Harvard University with a degree in Islamic history. “In the Judaeo-Christian world, charity is a notion which evokes generosity with nothing in return,” the Aga Khan told AFP on the sidelines of his visit to Syria.

“In Islam, the ‘best of charities’, but not the only one, is to help the poor be self-sufficient,” he said. “I was born with Islamic ethics, in a Muslim family. There is nothing wrong with being well off as long as money has a social and ethical value and is not the object of one’s own greed.

“That is why I wanted to set up institutions that can manage everyday problems based on Islamic values. “One of the principles of Islam is that on his deathbed every person must try to leave behind a better world,” he added. Restoring Islamic sites in Syria was also central to his goal of building bridges between religions and cultures.

“Syria wants to be a secular state where all religions co-exist, even if the majority of the Syrian people are Sunni” Muslim, the Aga Khan said. His Ismaili sect split from mainstream Shia Islam in the 11th century and its followers live today in some 25 countries across Africa, West and Central Asia, the Middle East, North America and Western Europe.

Source:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry
/ET_Cetera/Aga_Khan_pours_his_wealth_into_Islamic_sites_in_Syria
/articleshow/3481367.cms