Enclosure of emancipation

On Heritage

The proposal is conceived around the idea that Heritage is manifestation. Heritage does not imply only the past, but the continuous development of subjects. In Bamiyan’s case we can trace two aspects of it; on the one hand, the physical elements reified on the territory or as objects, and on the other, the variety of social conventions or vita activa loaded with tradition(s). This second one has been oppressed over time by hegemonic regimes, until recent times. Democracy, as a new political paradigm, creates the possibility for the rise of the social condition, the new public realm. The architectural project then, faces the difficult task of representing what is common to all, and to strategically seek for the sustainment and consolidation of plurality. Since the common cannot be represented, the project tries to act as a frame, a minimal spatial configuration for social action.

The construction of a permanent heterotopia 

Our first proposition to consolidate this new non-hegemonic place was to conceive a space of appearance. “…The space of appearance, is formed wherever men share modes of discourse and action, in a temporary agreement of many wills and intentions…and in this, it anticipates and precedes any formal constitution of the public sphere…” We constituted this space of tolerance and liberation, through the re-use of an archetypical artifact of the region, the Persian enclosure. This should be the first step of the construction of a new political stage. The building as a platform for the promotion of culture, and consolidation of tolerance for the diversity of ideologies or differences that may be present in its society. 

An Archetype as a platform for the future

Instead of searching for innovation through the speculation of shapes, new figurations, or technology in architecture, we thought of a critical form, widely known, and in force, as the enclosure. The project is a derivation of this type, transgressing its conventional characteristics of introversion, and exclusion by adapting its perimeter to an agglomeration of public, monumental spaces that mediate between the exterior and the courtyard.
The first four meters of height, maintain the traditional walled configuration, separating the spaces from the exterior, as the traditional architectural horizon in the region. The second four meters tall of the building, is also a walled configuration, still maintaining a clear perimeter, but a virtual one. This second perimeter is one of shadows and light, monumentalizing the building and re-qualifying the spatial perception of the inferior hermetic perimeter.
Another feature of the building is that is oriented towards significant ideological references, the Mecca and the Buddha’s. This searches to link the finite building to a territorial dimension, as a new reference point to refer to the whole region.