Afghanistan architecture news, Kabul building images, Architect contest, Modern Central Asian designs
Afghanistan Architecture : Buildings
Key Contemporary Architectural + Property Developments, Central Asia Built Environment
post updated 18 February 2025
For the very latest additions to e-architect in Afghanistan, please see: Afghanistan
Afghan Architecture News – latest additions to this page, arranged chronologically:
Afghanistan Architecture News
5 June 2023
Architectural heritage like you haven’t seen it before
Visual record of four historic building sites in Afghanistan
“Ways of Seeing” project documents endangered Afghan heritage sites through digital imaging, virtual reality, and hand-drawn professional renderings.
The shrine of Khwaja Abu Nasr Parsa in Balkh – the “Green Mosque”:
If it were more accessible, the Green Mosque would attract many visitors. But Balkh is located in northern Afghanistan, roughly 50 miles from the border with Uzbekistan, and few outsiders will ever reach it. Still, anyone can now get a vivid sense of the mosque thanks to MIT’s new “Ways of Seeing” project, an innovative form of historic preservation:
Ways of seeing, Afghanistan historic buildings
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Afghan Buildings from 2013
30 Aug 2013
Cultural Center of the Russian Federation in Kabul
Design: Architectural bureau A.Len
image from architects
Cultural Center of the Russian Federation in Kabul
This design received the Grand Prix of the international contest “Zodchestvo” in Moscow and Tatlin’s award (one of the most prestigious architectural awards in Russia).
3 May 2013
Maria Grazia Cutuli Primary School, Herat, western Afghanistan
picture © AKAA / Nazes Afroz
Maria Grazia Cutuli School Building
This building has been shortlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2013. The school property accommodates eight classrooms, various staff accommodation, a double-height library and a garden which acts as a green classroom. Built of reinforced concrete with brick cladding, the structures are painted rather than rendered, to save costs.
15 Feb 2013
Afghanistan School Building
photo : Article 25
Afghanistan School Building
Evaluation of School Building Projects in Afghanistan. This architectural article was written by Isona Shibata of Article 25.
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Afghanistan Architecture Designs
Contemporary Afghan Buildings – architectural selection from 2012 below:
13 Oct 2012
National Museum of Afghanistan, Kabul
Design: Matteo Cainer Architects Ltd
image from architects practice
National Museum of Afghanistan
The construction of the Afghan museum celebrates the richness of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage and the spirit of its peoples. In a nation devastated by war, the wealth of its cultural background and the spirit of its peoples are embodied here.
Bamiyan Cultural Centre Design Competition
Design: Barna Architects
image courtesy of architecture office
Bamiyan Cultural Centre Design
The architects’ focus for the design of the Bamiyan Cultural Center was to find the right form of integration from an ecological perspective, for this reason it is indispensable to understand the local inhabitants’ lives and their connection to the environment. The architecture firm envisioned a design which is in coherence with the native peoples’ mental and emotional connection to their homeland, including the environmental, physiological, cognitive, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of life.
Arzu Rugs Afghanistan
Design: Zaha Hadid Architects
image from architects
Arzu Rugs Afghanistan
Arzu, which means “hope” in Dari, is an innovative model of social entrepreneurship that helps Afghan women weavers and their families break the cycle of poverty by providing them steady income and access to education and healthcare by sourcing and selling the rugs they weave.
More Afghanistan Architecture online soon
Location: Afghanistan, Asia
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Buildings in countries near Afghanistan
Flooding in Pakistan – Rebuilding
Flooding in Pakistan : Report from Article 25
Buildings / photos for the Afghanistan Architecture – Central Asian Built Environment design updates page welcome.