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Architecture and Culture
Stanley Hallet, FAIA, professor of architecture,
Catholic University of America
One of my particular interests when I founded the Temple Studio in
Salt Lake City was the relationship between architecture and
culture. One semester we set out to tackle the problem in
Afghanistan, where I had spent a Fulbright year in 1972. At that
time, Afghanistan was a mysterious place, especially to Americans,
more so than it is today. Most of it is mountainous, with the towns
below along the former silk routes. It is still a land of many
peoples and many cultures.
When our studio goes into an area like this, we ask: What do we
need to know? What do we need to do to intervene? In this case it
had to do with schools in Herat and other areas. We studied local
building typologies: the passive solar systems and substructures
and the geometric formulae that are so important in Islam and in
this part of the world. We looked at the urban complexes: the
bazaars and the old city plans, the dimensional systems and
coordinates. We studied the houses: rooms and their furniture,
niches, and fenestration systems; under-floor heating systems; the
relationship between the kitchen and the rest of the house, how it
warms the room. We saw how they built for the constant shaking of
the earth, the mini-earthquakes—and how they patched up. We
marveled that all of this was built without drawings.
It all came together in the students’ projects—schools,
sometimes integrated with orphanages so some students lived there.
The silk routes have vanished, but there are nomadic routes; people
are still trading between China and the Middle East. Some students
developed projects that tied in the temporary lodgings and
storefronts shaded with fabric. There is an evolution from house to
city; the caravan yurt becomes a part of the city, which mirrors
its shape.
The same is true with other elements; they build up or aggregate.
One qala—a fortified farm house built around an interior
court—leads to more. They build fortress walls to demark
territory and then fill in the space, first with tents or yurts and
then with more permanent construction, all linked to other housing,
the mosque, assembly spaces, and the water system. One of the
student projects was a health clinic, designed so it could be
transformed to link to the bazaar if the street became more active
over time.
We studied culture, climate, and building technology, and we
discovered a very sophisticated country. A lot of our work there
was discovering that—and how to take advantage of that
understanding and experience to provide the new services they
need.
Rebuilding the Schools
Alonzo Fulgham, director, South Asian affairs,
Near East Bureau, U.S. Agency for International Development
After the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan was a failed state with
deep ethnic rifts—a challenge for the international community.
AID’s goal was to reform and rebuild the educational sector.
The Ministry of Education was a shambles; it had no water or paper,
let alone computers. Schools across the country had been bombed,
burned, and looted by the Russians and then by the Taliban; by
1981, 80 percent had been destroyed or severely damaged. As a
result of the Taliban, millions of children were discouraged from
attending school, and teachers were driven out; 97 percent of
girls had no access to education.
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AID’s integrated education package encompassed both basic
and higher education. One focus was school construction. AID has
rehabilitated 267 primary and secondary schools, and 283 more are
in process. It has been a Herculean effort.
There are three critical factors. One is the quantity and quality
of available construction materials. Another is the process.
Afghanistan is a difficult country in which to operate—from
the effects of weather, roads, and war damage to the scarcity of
professional and entrepreneurial talent and skill. Locating needed
workers and providing the necessary supervision is a significant
impediment to construction projects there; there are no quality
control mechanisms.
AID doesn’t build schools; it awards construction contracts to
nongovernmental agencies (NGOs) such as the Louis Berger Group and
the United Methodist Committee on Relief and Shelter for Life,
which work in different areas and hire local firms to expedite
construction.
The Ministry of Education plays a key role in school construction,
including site selection and design. Its participation is critical
to the development of ownership, which is important because they
must maintain those schools in the future. The difficulty is the
glacial speed of the approval process; all designs must be approved
by the ministry. The local authorities provide the land, sometimes
good and sometimes marginal.
The most serious impediment to school construction is lack of
security, especially in the south and southeast where it is
difficult or impossible to get contractors because of threats from
the Taliban and Al Qaeda, which target schools because they will
enroll girls and serve as voting places. There have been incidents
of explosives and gunfire used against schools. There is also gross
banditry, robbery, and extortion.
But the fortitude of the Afghan people is great; their
determination to send their children to school is great. Despite
these problems, there are reasons for great hope. On a recent trip
I talked with young girls in their tent school; I saw the
enthusiasm in their eyes. When I asked what they want to be, they
said doctor, teacher, or journalist. I hope they will grow to see a
flourishing nation.
Women’s Development Centers
Gregory Kearley, AIA, principal, Inscape
Studio
Inscape Studio was invited to design the prototype for the Afghan
women’s development centers. Three have been built to date,
and the plan is for as many as 14 more in coming years. The client
is Relief International, funded by AID. The goal was to create a
structure that would contribute to healing.
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The design process had three critical components. The first was
to analyze the site, the culture, the climate, and local building
practices—the daily extremes of weather, the breezeways for
heating and cooling, the high windows that allow heat to escape
(limited in size for security reasons), roofs that divert rainwater
for collection and use, and the courtyards that are
traditional in Islamic architecture and serve as a system of
organization.
The second element was a definition of the program. That was clear;
it was a direct response to the plight of the women of Afghanistan.
The first need was education, the second health. We created a
private compound that provides services to the community, with an
education wing and a health wing—and a guard station between
the outer and inner courtyards.
The third component of the design process was to engage the client
in the development program. Three clients had direct
input—Relief International, the Ministry of Women’s
Affairs, and a collection of NGOs doing work related to
women’s issues—but it was also important to understand
the ultimate client: the women who would use these centers, their
history and their culture as well as their needs.
I met with the director of Relief International yesterday and asked
him what contribution the architecture had made. He described with
pleasure how the women go about their daily activities, their sense
of empowerment, the literacy classes, the health education, the
income-generation training and the voter education—and how the
women’s development center has become an important local
meeting place for the NGOs and the Ministry of Women’s
Affairs. Architecture has the ability to empower.
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