National Museum of Afghanistan Competition Winner Announced

The Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture and the US Embassy in Kabul acknowledge the extraordinary design ideas that were submitted to the International Architectural Ideas Competition for the National Museum of Afghanistan. The Jury’s decision for the winning design submissions is based on the clarity of the architectural concept that responds effectively to the programmatic, functional, technical, economic and security requirements in the brief, and the architectural quality of the proposed design as a whole. This decision ultimately recognizes the distinguished architectural quality of the winning proposed design solution.


1st Prize: AV62 ARQUITECTOS SLP, Spain

The strength of this Design Proposal rests on the balance that has been achieved between the architectural form and the presentation of the collections that will be housed in the proposed new Museum building. This has been achieved by an exterior appearance that is distinctive yet understated and which responds to the local context, along with a coherent scheme of interior spatial articulation that takes into account the nature of the materials that might be displayed. Moreover, the design is a relatively simple building solution that is both affordable and realistic to construct with the materials and skills locally available – this design will enable the collection to be safely stored as soon as possible. The clear and simple circulation concept, along with a degree of modularity, results in an efficient spatial arrangement for staff and operations that also provides a degree of flexibility in responding to changing needs and variation of displays.


2nd Prize: Mansilla + Tuñón Arquitectos, Spain

This Design Proposal is a more demonstrative, monumental type architecture that expresses the functional spaces within. The scale of the proposed new museum building is bigger than that of the First Prize Winner and the exterior profile can be seen as visually responsive to the backdrop of the surrounding mountains. Like the First Prize Winner, the design is based upon a grid, offering easy expansion and interior flexibility, but here the grid is expressed more directly externally and the building becomes visually more assertive. The design has an identifiable and recognizable visual form and scale that is quite sculptural, without being too monumental.


3rd Prize: fs-architekten, Germany

This Design Proposal makes an extremely strong and creative architectural statement and represents the most successful of the free-form designs. This is achieved by very sculptural massings and volumes. The visual references to the adjacent mountains represent a further shift towards an architecture that speaks of the landscape and of the nature of protection. The design also has the potential to be quite dramatic: a building that could become a destination visit in its own right, encouraging an interest in the collection almost by default.



You can get more infos & other prizes on here.

But shame that the provided images are too small to watch.

Text & Images from: archdaily and S.E.E