Talking about the project and his aspirations for Ishkashim, the mayor of Ishkashim, Mohammad Asif Amiri, said, “We expect the Harvard and AKAH team to evaluate and explore the role of Ishkashim in every aspect and propose a design based on its strategic role and potential in terms of culture, business, tourism, etc. We want to have a city that addresses the needs of the entire community of Ishkashim and the region. Planning is important because it creates investment opportunities and a comprehensive plan ensures balanced growth and responsible use of natural resources such as water and land.”

Recognizing the rich rural context in which Ishkashim is located, the studio encouraged speculation that anticipates the implementation of necessary physical, social, cultural, ecological, and economic infrastructures. Given its extreme climatic and topographic conditions, the area is particularly vulnerable to climate change and natural hazards. Prospective programs of the Afghan government there already foresee the need for teachers’ housing units, a traditional sports centre, and an airport that should be integrated—and possibly deployed, to propose an inclusive, intelligent, and sustainable plan for Ishkashim as a ‘model town.’ The goal is to facilitate and anticipate Ishkashim’s evolution into a city and a community that can confidently embrace the future, aware of the challenges of the region (i.e. climate change, social and political instability, gender discrimination among several other contextual issues). Studio outputs propose strategic and tactical designs informed by the site’s complexity, building upon knowledge acquired through the semester via constant dialogue with local partners, complemented by research exercises. The studio’s multi-scalar approach  allows for several types of outputs, from architectural projects to public policy strategies and proposition

To provide additional local context and promote knowledge sharing, Harvard students are paired with architecture and urban planning students from the University of Kabul. Ahmad Irshan Qiam, an architecture student from Kabul University, paired with a GSD student doing an ethnographic study of Ishkashim, said that the “buddy system has been beneficial for both sides, it helped to broaden my horizons and transformed difficulty into opportunity.”

Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Assistant Professor of Urban Design at Harvard GSD and co-instructor of the studio, says: “the course is embedded into appreciation for resilient architecture and planning practices in the region, such as Nuristani housing which is resistant to earthquakes, nomad lifestyles that are responsive to resources exhaustion, or even enclosed orchards as climatically intelligent solutions. Without romanticising harsh existing conditions, these best practices shed light on Afghanistan in a way that forces us to discuss what ‘development’ actually means, for who and by whom narratives of progress are conducted, and our role as designers in these processes.”