RAMALLAH, West Bank — Standing on a hill that looks out over the town of Birzeit, the Palestinian Museum is a cultural oasis whose architecture mimics the surrounding landscape. The museum's hillside gardens and stone walls imitate the stone terraces used in agricultural lands in the Palestinian villages and the building itself is made of limestone quarried locally near Bethlehem.

The museum was designed by Irish architect Heneghan Peng, who won the international competition in 2011. Peng had spent four months in Palestine to familiarize himself with the country's architectural heritage before he submitted his project for a multipurpose center of culture and education. The stone terraces that surrounds the building were built by Jordanian landscape architect Lara Zureikat. 

In August, the Palestinian Museum, the largest cultural center in the West Bank, won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, along with five other projects: Bahrain’s Revitalisation of Muharraq, a World Heritage site; Bangladesh’s Arcadia Education Project; Russia’s Public Spaces Development Programme, in the Republic of Tatarstan; Senegal’s Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, in Bambey; and United Arab Emirates’ Wasit Wetland Center, in Sharjah. The Aga Khan awards do not only reward architects, but also identify municipalities, builders, clients, master artisans and engineers who have played important roles in the realization of a project. The six winners, selected from among 20 projects, will share the $1 million award. 

"The selection of the Museum was due to its powerful embodiment of a cultural identity under duress at the intersection of land and architecture, nature and people,” the jury said in the press kit announcing the awards.