This international competition was to design a culture centre in the historically significant, but war torn city of Bamiyan in Afghanistan. The city is famous for the absence of Budha figures demolished due to political unrest. We used the idea of this absence or void as a central theme of the design. Various functional spaces, plazas museums and courts where integrated to the core space.
The chiseled house was one of our earliest renovation projects. The original house was constructed 13 years back and had used heavy ornamentation in its architectural expression. The layout had disjointed functions and lacked ventilation. We redesigned the house with a minimal architectural vocabulary based on the functional requirements. The skewed roof form is the outcome of a design process based on functional requirements and structural integrity. Layers of bamboo and other tropical planting, at different strategic points bring about passive cooling, and adds greenery to the house.
