In front of the timeless authority of the Bamiyan Cliff, the proposed cultural centre blends with nature, expressing its identity in a simple but strong gesture that operates a deep cut on the shoulder of the hill (the delimited terrain), facing the historical cliff.
Seen from the cliff, the cultural centre seems generated by one drawn line, scaled to nature, inducing a discrete geometry in a linear modulation. Underneath it, the functional spaces are partly displayed in a semi troglodytic development. Their forms are innovative, thus unexpected, bearing in a symbolic way the meanings of the typologies of the patrimony of Afghanistan.
The Iwan and the Dome are the key notes that structure the geometric composition of the Bamiyan Cultural Centre. The Dome, modern in design but traditional in its genetics, covers the main exhibition space, linking the various public functions. Its profile is extruded to form the Iwan, extending the space towards the Buddha Cliff, embracing it with its panoramic aperture, thus becoming the key feature of the architecture in screening the internal, external, Buddha Cliff relationships.
The regulating geometry of the Space towards the Cliff takes form in the Dome, drawn entirely as an embracing Symbol of Peace, its universal semiotics having a strong psychological impact on the visitor who should feel all the forces of the building (the cultural and ethnic components of Afghanistan) united under its veil.
Two directions radiate from its centre at 45° each. They extend to the outside, drawing the profile of the Iwan, thus shaping it as a monumental frame for viewing the Cliff. Reversely, seen from the Buddha Cliff, the Iwan is the meeting of two telluric forces like joined hands in a strong symbol of unity. Unity qualifies the space, it qualifies also the history where past, present and future features are drawn in continuity.
Unity is expressed by the processional visiting experience of the space, where various components merge in harmony all along the main gallery towards the dome, the Iwan, the view. The left wall of the gallery echoes the broken cliff, leading through troglodytic accesses to particular functions; whereas the stairs serving the classrooms in the first floor are carved in the right wall all along, as if synthesized from the archaic ones carved in the Buddha Cliff.
