The winners of the Marble Architectural Awards (MAA) competition were recently announced by the program's organizer, Internazionale Marmi e Macchine Carrara S.p.A (IMM Carrara). The awards highlighted architectural projects using stone completed in the Middle East and Northern Africa, demonstrating that stone use was not affected by recent complex political events in the Middle East. These works highlighted not only the high level of quality in architecture but also the "universal meaning," according to IMM Carrara.
The first prize for the external cladding category was awarded to SnNhetta Hamza Consortium for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, built in Alexandria, Egypt, in 2001 using Schulman Grey granite, a local stone. To make a work that has such a long-standing tradition in that city, stone was chosen to embody historical continuity. Although the building has been finished for months, it has been a victim of the tensions that are upsetting the land on both sides of the Sinai and thus has not yet been inaugurated with a worthy ceremony.