Editorial 41

Ahmad Zohadi

There are many countries in the great continent of Asia, which have rich and ancient cultural heritage. Each of them has unique, colorful and rich history and civilization, which may look very different on the surface, however they are not contradictory but complementary to one another, because they all have some underlying commonality; which is their richness in culture, history, religion and civilization. International events such as 2AAA, allows us to witness this beautiful display of various amazing cultures and their characteristics in one forum. And in doing so encourages the contemporary architects to appreciate their roots and at the same time learn more about various viewpoints and methodology of their Asian Counterparts. It also facilitates the interaction between the Asian Architects. And internationaly promotes the Asian Architecture, and displays the greatness of Asian civilizations specially their amazing architectural designs and projects. 2A Magazine as organizer of 2A Asia Architecture Award hopes to achieve a broader goal, which is bringing architects who are also creative artists together and providing an opportunity for sharing and interacting ideas, help enhance peace, friendship, and disseminate the wave of unity, friendship and peace around the world.
Meeting this goal, 2A magazine has taken another step towards creating a forum for all architects around the Globe to expand and enrich their vision about architecture which is 2A Continental Architectural Award and it has been organized in Berlin 2017 for Asia and Europe.
Each of these great continents (Asia and Europe) have different cultural and historical backgrounds, therefore their social and architectural needs are also different. Architects of each continent had to consider their local and regional features such as geography, customs, culture, tradition, history, religious values, etc. while designing a project. This consideration has led to the formation of different and diversi ed styles of architecture in each continent. Therefore, after successfully organizing 2A Asia Architecture Award for two years, 2A magazine decided to expand the Award to include other continents. Thus, this year (2017), Europe has been comprised in the award as well. This trend will
continue, and the organizer wishes to eventually arrange the award for all the continents in the coming years.
2A Continental Architectural Award will be a landmark and turning point allowing practitioners to pause and
reflect upon what the continents, as a part of global community have achieved in the field of Architecture.
Architecture is an art and a profession, which plays a multi-dimensional role in any society. Its function and
responsibility is not merely to create beautiful living spaces, it has to reflect and respond to the social, cultural
and economical needs and challenges of that speci c society, country, region or continent.