Archinect - News

The war in Afghanistan left behind a host of abandoned buildings and other infrastructure

2021-09-08T15:25:00-04:00

The Afghan countryside is littered with abandoned and decaying power plants, prisons, schools, factories, office buildings and military bases, according to a watchdog agency, the legacy of the U.S.’s 20-year effort to fund the establishment of a modern Afghan state that could provide security and basic services for its citizens

A reported $145 billion went to infrastructure projects and construction equipment alone. In March, an American taxpayer watchdog group called SIGAR released a report which estimated $6.6 billion worth of buildings and vehicles went misused or were abandoned since the 20-year war began. Architecture in the country is likely to fall into dire straights as the Taliban have gained total control of every province.

The embassy complex alone cost the U.S. over $8 billion. President Bush called the main building a “big, solid, permanent structure, which should represent the commitment of the United States of America to your liberty” at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in March of 2006.

The Wall Street Journal has more on what’s been left to rot here.

Afghan cultural officials fear worst is yet to come for historic monuments as Taliban resume power in Afghanistan

2021-08-18T17:32:00-04:00

Do leopards change their spots? One only has to look at the command structure of the Taliban and their supporters to feel that there won’t be much of a change from 2001—and it might well be worse. [...] Much of the archaeological landscape has simply gone. Many of the Buddhist monuments were dynamited in 2001, partly in search of portable antiquities to loot.

Some of Afghanistan's museums had reportedly begun preparations months ago, others are at a loss as fear and paranoia grips what remains of civil society after a 20-year occupation. The city of Herat poses a special risk as its educational heritage and historic citadel have led some to the comparison of the ancient Vietnamese imperial city of Hue that was destroyed during the 1968 Tet Offensive.

Several Afghan artists have already shuttered their studios preemptively in fear of the Taliban’s wrath. The Art Newspaper has more on museum responses and their potential cultural impacts here.

The challenges of urban planning in Kabul: formalizing the informal

2019-05-13T14:37:00-04:00

Barely built for a million people, Kabul, now has close to five million residents with the majority – 80% – still living in informal, unplanned areas [...]. More than one million properties still need to be officially registered, according to City for All, a government urban planning initiative. [...] But while decades of war have destroyed much of the capital, an urban revolution is growing, creating small pockets of peace.

The Guardian's Stefanie Glinski writes about the efforts residents and the local government in the rapidly growing Afghan capital are taking to cope with the overwhelming urbanization, turn informal settlements into formal ones, set urban planning goals, and rediscover architectural heritage and craftsmanship that has defined the region for centuries.

"I don’t want our children to forget about our historical background," the article quotes an Afghan master carpenter. "Both regime changes and war destroyed our country. As Kabul is growing, many modern buildings are put up carelessly. We can’t forget about our architectural history and its beauty."

National Museum of Afghanistan Entry by Matteo Cainer Architects

2012-10-16T13:54:00-04:00

Bustler recently published the winning projects of the National Museum of Afghanistan competition. Here is another museum entry we just received, the proposal "Timeless Cube" by Paris/London-based firm Matteo Cainer Architects.

Winners of the National Museum of Afghanistan Competition

2012-10-04T18:11:00-04:00

In the international architectural ideas competition for the new design for the National Museum of Afghanistan, the entry by Spanish team AV 62 Arquitectos was selected for the First Prize. The Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture and the US Embassy recently announced the results at an awards ceremony in Kabul.