Article source: Robert Hull and UNIVERSITY of WASHINGTON
Located in the center Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan’s fourth largest city, the Gohar Khatoon Girls’ School provides kindergarten through grade twelve classes, serving 3,000 students a day.
Mazar-i-Sharif is home to several universities, and Gohar Khatoon–acting as a gateway to higher education–is positioned to become a key institution for educating several thousand women and girls in an important urban center. Girls’ schools are already considered to be major contributors in Afghanistan’s push toward development and these institutions serve as powerful mechanisms for inclusion within Afghan society. Schools are the setting where women and girls will negotiate this transition, and Gohar Khatoon has been designed to support this process by promoting stability, comfort, and community engagement.
Client: Balkh Province Ministry of Education; Janet W. Ketcham Foundation/Sahar Education
Construction: Jason Simmons, Sayed Ali Mortazavy, Hussain Ahmady, Farkhonda Rajaby, Airokhsh Faiz Qaisary, Afghanistan American Friendship Foundation
Structural and Civil Engineering: Solaiman Salahi
Research: University of Washington Studio Participants – Bryan Brooks, Marcus Crider, Grace Crofoot, Sarah Eddy, Yasaman Esmaili, Christopher Garland, Mariam Kamara, Michelle Kang, Kevin Lang, Carolyn Lecompte, Benjamin Maestas, Jaclyn Merlet, Holly Schwarz, Mazohra Thami, Andrew Thies, Mackenzie Waller, Patricia Wilhelm
Tags: Afghanistan, Mazar-i-Sharif Comments Off on Gohar Khatoon Girls’ School in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan by Robert Hull and UNIVERSITY of WASHINGTON
Human habitation in Afghanistan dates back to the Middle Paleolithic Era, and the country’s strategic location along the Silk Road connected it to the cultures of the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia. Through the ages the land has been home to various peoples and witnessed many military campaigns, notably by Alexander the Great, Arab Muslims, Genghis Khan, and in the modern-era by Western powers. The land also served as a source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Durranis, and others have risen to form major empires.
Klingmann Architects and Brand Consultants’ competition entry for the new National Museum of Afghanistan envisions the institution as a compact jewel box concealing the treasure that history has entrusted to it piece by piece. For this reason, the box, though dense and hermetic on the outside, must be suggestive and magical on the inside. Seemingly simple and plain on the exterior, the box reveals the deep, rich and complex heritage of the people of Afghanistan on the interior. While the treasures are carefully embedded and protected deep within the box, they are not readily available to the onlooker. They remain a hidden mystery, longing to be discovered. We want to capture this sense of mystery and longing and The space within invites the visitor on a journey of unearthing and discovery. The space within is neither a mere organizing element, nor a beautiful but distant architecture. The exhibition’s experience has the ability to evoke places and people from a tiny yet resilient fragment of ceramic which has managed to survive, and which speaks of the fragility of time.
Clients: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Ministry of Information and Culture, The National Museum of Afghanistan, The Embassy of the United States of America – Kabul, Afghanistan, S.E.E |Office for Architecture and Design
Design Team: Anna Klingmann, DongCheol Yang, Sarina Heres, Dominique Dassum, Andrew Brooks, Bing Wu, Zijian Xu
Afghanistan’s culture that abides in the country was much ruined and deserted. Its new museum to catch up the lost richness and its cultural asset is necessitated to give hope and inspire people in that region.
Finding this design chance as a way to bring the lost heritage back to the present, the major concern for the architecture was not only about the collections but also emotional realm of space that requires a place to give a rest and the joy of the nature in its heritage safe and secured.
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