14 BLUE FOLLIES OF BAMIYAN
The Bamiyan Cultural Centre was imagined as an epitome of the history and culture that got eclipsed by the tribulations of Afghanistan. The Centre will unify the people of Afghanistan and restore the importance of lost culture and art. Bamiyan was an economic goldmine circa114 BC, when the region flourished with trade and commerce owing to the Silk Route. The design concept is inspired from this economic activity. The lower Northern portion of the site will be activated as a Friday Market area that will be is open to the people of the town to showcase local handiwork, food, fabric etc that visitors can buy. This zone can also be used as an open air theatre for outdoor public performances that will be facilitated by the building, offering splendid views of the Buddha Cliffs and the Valley. The higher elevation of the site contains landscapes in geometric shapes inspired by Persian Gardens, paying tribute to the ancestral origin of the local Hazara people. Vehicular circulation is restricted to the South-west corner and the rest of the site is open to pedestrians.
Social Strategy: Two routes were identified within the site. The route that leads to the Friday market is open to the town through an undulating green roof of the cultural centre. This market is a node between the site and the rest of the town where small scale hawkers can sell their locally made produce and visitors also get a chance to interact with the local people. The length of the green turf captures a perfect panorama of the Valley and terminates with this active zone with seating facing the Buddha Cliffs. The Second route is for locals and tourists who wish to visit the Cultural Centre. They are led through the Persian Gardens to the lower level of the site through a series of steps and ramps. Here visitors can buy tickets and pass through security check to use the rest of the Centres’ facilities. The public zones such as the exhibition and performance hall occupy the anterior portion and are cordoned off from the rest of the building. The private areas like the administration, conference and store are located in the Northern portion and accessed through a separate staff entry. The cut portions of the site are optimally used to fill the green roof portions.
Building Concept: The Afghan national anthem mentions 14 ethnic groups. The planning is based on 14 grids of 14x14 m size. The green roof also sprouts 14 follies. These shapes were inspired by the ‘Dambura’, a bowl shaped musical instrument of the natives. These follies playfully populate the green roof leaving its walls as canvases for the artists of the town, providing shade for people to sit around them and are light wells that flood the interiors with natural glare-free light. The green roof is also a passive open exhibition space and visitors can access this level through an interior ramp. From the Bamiyan Valley, scintillating views of 14 colourful drums rising from a canopy of greenery symbolises the emergence and unification of the 14 ethnic groups amongst testing times. Blue is a familiar colour as it represents the traditional cloaks of Afghan women, the colours of lazurite and the colour of the sky. The exterior surfaces of these drums are painted in hues of blue with ribbons of pink that symbolises tourmaline, a mineral that was once abundant in this region.
Environmental Strategy: The walls are made up of Rammed earth with small rectangular openings. The building by itself will be a training centre for rammed earth construction. The light wells are made up of bricks and provide indirect natural light into indoor spaces and regulate air flow within interiors through high level openings. The Exhibition Space particularly features a double wall construction with an intermediate air cavity to improve thermal performance. The green roof improves interior thermal comfort by reducing heat transfer between the building and the environment which makes the building energy efficient. The green roof will also activate biodiversity of the region and harbour local flora and fauna. Solar panels on the umbrellas of the market space and few drums are used to generate electricity.
Status: Competition Entry
