Optimism and architecture: lessons from the 2025 Aga Khan Award Winners

Architecture is not neutral. It either enforces systems of control or helps dismantle them. The 2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture proves that design can be survival in flood-prone Bangladesh, belonging in rural China, memory in historic Esna, joy in Palestine, and dignity in Iran. These projects refuse spectacle and instead offer social infrastructure, rootedness, participation, and justice. In today’s climate of displacement and inequality, they are not just buildings, they are political interventions. At Lemon Papaya, we draw on their lessons to ask: how can every wall, threshold, and gathering space move us closer to liberation?