Our proposal for the Bamiyan Cultural Centre, starts from a simple gesture over the sensitive landscape of the Bamiyan valley. A rectangular and low structure (3.5 meters high) which is open on its four sides to the landscape, surrounds a second rectangular structure with a more vertical character. This scheme enables the building program to be vertically and horizontally hierarchized and at the same time, allows the building to reduce its apparent scale without compromising the spatial proportions of the structure’s public program.

Despite the subtle interaction with the landscape, the building does not hide in the middle of it, instead, it does a gentle integration. And this integration it’s catalyzed by the materiality of the building. The exposed concrete of the continuous porch that surrounds the cultural center, is harmonized with the landscape through the use of local sand and aggregates on its fabrication and the tonality of the central volume is given by the rammed earth walls, also made by local materials.