UNESCO World Heritage Site Intervention

BAMIYAN CULTURAL CENTER DESIGN COMPETITION, PROJECT LEADER AND CONTENT CREATOR

Afghanistan has been seen as a place of conflict and strife, but this is far from the whole picture. The country is a place of extraordinary resilience, where some of the world’s most ancient cultural traditions comingled, where there are stunningly varied landscapes and where the people retain a deep well of hopefulness and optimism for a better future. With the realization of the Bamiyan Cultural Center we now have the opportunity to recapture heritage, to create a physical impact on a historic site and to foster a new positive relationship between past and present.

Funding for cultural projects is often neglected in conflict zones. This is, in part, because their results are usually not visible in the short term. However, cultural rights are human rights and a sense of shared cultural attachment is arguably a prerequisite for achieving sustainable peace. The Bamiyan Cultural Center project was a one-of-a-kind project. International and national entities united around the idea that building a nation through cultivating culture is an important way to sustain peace and advance positive aspirations for the future. Through this design competition architects around the world had the opportunity to contribute to this process.