Khoja Ahmed Yasawi Museum, Option 2
- location
- Kazakhstan, Turkestan
- design
- 2019
- site area
- 1 ha
- total area
- 2 970 m²
One of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi’s great works is the Divan-i Hikmet, the Book of Wisdom — a foundational text in the philosophy of the Turkic world. The contemporary Yasawi Museum should communicate the truth and wisdom embedded in this work through the symbolic and metaphorical language available to architecture.
One such symbol is the Baiterek — in Turkic culture, the image of the World Tree, whose roots hold the earth and whose crown supports the sky. Baiterek represents a three-part universe: the underworld, the earthly world and the heavens; the past, the present and the future. It is precisely this tripartite spatial structure that forms the basis of the concept for the Khoja Ahmed Yasawi Museum.
The faceted columns rising from the underground library level unfold into pointed vaults at the ground-floor level of the main exhibition space dedicated to the life of Yasawi. Above this is the literary museum, devoted to the philosopher’s cultural, literary and educational legacy.
The museum’s architectural vocabulary is an interpretation of medieval Turkic, Islamic and Persian architecture. Even the decorative lighting of the blind sections of the facade takes the form of stylised calligraphic renderings of the poet’s great sayings.
As with the first museum concept, the new building is intended to accommodate the most advanced interactive and multimedia museum formats.
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