As architects, to face seriously the Bamiyan Cultural Centre project start by asking a series of questions that allow us to work with some certainties: What is to be a cultural centre in a town like Bamiyan and in a country like Afghanistan? At what immediate and future real needs of society must answer?
Therefore, we understand the competition with a double meaning, the "domestic", enriching the culture of the region, promoting the creation of educational and recreational programs, facilitating cultural exchanges among different ethnic groups, and creating a public space for the development of civil life; and the "external", to present another facet of Bamiyan, and not just that we receive by the media, but rather their heritage, culture, architecture and people.
That's why we decided to develop a building that reinterpret the regional architecture, which not only comply with the construction requirements and established areas but speak for itself, that reflects history and culture of the region.
HYPOTHESIS
We think that the era of the closed and introverted education has been in the past, we now have total access to the information, which is dynamic, changing, flowing. Therefore, we think the Bamiyan Cultural Centre in the same way.
We don’t want to rescue only the Forms, but rather strategies and attitudes to develope the project: tradition and modernity, knowledge and creation are concepts that go together in our understanding of the architecture.
We develop the building into four parts.
The first part is the Entry Hall, a monumental space, divested, full of light and reminiscent of Afghan culture, which welcomes visitors. There the building is divided into two, the “Exhibition Pavilion” and the “Education Pavilion”. The first contains the main rooms and research modules, and the second hosts classrooms and workshops.
These three parts converge and are related by a large pond that serves as a great mirror, giving the building a part of sky.
Hassan Fathy said: "The Arab comes from the desert. He owes its simplicity, hospitality, his inclination for mathematics and astronomy and even the family structure. His experience of nature is bitter. Land, landscape, are cruel to the Bedouin scorching enemy. The only good thing in the sky, clean and refreshing, with beneficial rain in white clouds, considers the house of God "
Finally, and making an apology from the caverns, the Board of principal events, is underground, accessed by a ramp, which as a crack, plows through the water, disappearing into the pond.
CONCLUSION
Our project is based on a theoretical assumption that we intend not be characterized as "truth" but that is the basis for taking a series of design decisions that end up generating as coherent and beautiful building possible.
The movement of people inside the building is a geometric discourse for an exhibition, a gallery, a pond, by culture and history, in which spaces and pieces that go I advertise and slowing tour singularize at times.
We believe in a reinterpretation of the regional architecture. In a game between heritage and present. Time and space. Where the culture of Bamiyan Valley not only be contained, but shared with the world.
Status: Competition Entry
