The Department of Architecture of Mukogawa Women’s University (MWU) has provided the basic design of the Bamiyan Museum & Culture Center (the Bamiyan Museum & Culture Center for People), planned for the Bamiyan World Heritage site in Afghanistan. The Architectural Design Studio at MWU (the office of registered architects in the Department of Architecture) has taken a lead on this project since 2012.
　The Bamiyan Valley is located 120 km west of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, where Buddhist art prospered during the 5th through 9th century. In 2001, the two Giant Buddhas of Bamiyan and many other cultural relics were destroyed. Bamiyan was then inscribed in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger as “Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley”. To the present, international experts with Afghan colleagues have carried out several safeguarding projects at the Bamiyan site under the initiative of UNESCO.
　The necessity of the Bamiyan Museum was recognized and discussed at the 10th Expert Working Group Meeting for the Safeguarding of the Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley World Heritage Property (Bamiyan Expert Working Group Meeting) in Tokyo in December 2011. All the participants agreed that establishment of the Bamiyan Museum was necessary to conserve historical and cultural properties in Bamiyan and to reunify Afghanistan through cultural activities.
　MWU's Department of Architecture proposed to cooperate on preparing the design of the Bamiyan Museum with the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo (NRICPT), which is leading the safeguarding project for the Bamiyan site. In December 2012, at the 11th Bamiyan Expert Working Group Meeting in Aachen, Germany, co-organized by UNESCO and Aachen Technological University, Prof. Okazaki presented the conceptual design of the Bamiyan Museum. Following this, in order to develop this project, MWU contracted with UNESCO in the frame of the UNESCO/Japanese Funds-in-Trust (JFiT) for Cultural Heritage in July of 2013. MWU later updated the basic design of the museum and culture center and the exhibition plans for the museum, based on a survey of the area surrounding the planned site by NRICPT in September 2013. In December of that year, Prof. Okazaki presented the second basic design of the Bamiyan Museum at the 12th Bamiyan Expert Working Group Meeting in Orvieto, Italy, receiving great praise and high acclaim from participants, especially authorities of Afghanistan. The project for the design of the Bamiyan Museum was featured on the web and in newspapers.

　The establishment of the Bamiyan Museum at the Bamiyan site was firstly discussed at the 10th Bamiyan Expert Working Group Meeting in December 2011 in Tokyo. Habiba Sarabi, the former governor of Bamiyan Province, Afghanistan, draw attention of the participants to the significance of the construction of the Bamiyan Museum for the people in Bamiyan Province, where its people has no facility to understand their outstanding culture and history, to learn their culture and how to preserve their cultural heritage, and to enhance the ties between peoples. Omar Said Sultan, the Deputy Minister of Information and Culture of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan at that time, added the importance of the peaceful reunification of Afghanistan and the recovery of its national identity, through understanding their culture in the Bamiyan Museum.
　Inspired by their strong desire, MWU has developed the principal concept of the Bamiyan Museum, including consideration of building design and its harmony with surrounding landscapes and facilities, as well as the results of conservation efforts during the past decade at the Bamiyan site by the Afghan and international experts funded by the UNESCO/Japanese Funds-in-Trust (JFiT).
　The basic concepts are as follows:
1) the Bamiyan Museum will provide a place for people to gather, strengthen their ties, and enhance respect to their culture, and to function as a place of capacity buildings for the future generation. Furthermore, it will be a foundation for the promotion of peace throughout Afghanistan.
2) in addition to showcasing the splendid history of the region as a World Heritage Site and the results of the international conservation activities started in 2003, the Bamiyan Museum should function as a center to provide the people of Afghanistan with a deep understanding of current Islamic culture, and protect their intangible heritage, and as a tourism center in order to improve their living standard.
3) the Bamiyan Museum should serve as a venue to disseminate the rich cosmopolitan aspects reflecting the unique history of Bamiyan as a center for the exchange of eastern and western culture.

　Based on the above basic concepts, the budget for the construction of the Bamiyan Museum should be arranged and financed through transparent, multiple international funds. 

　The Bamiyan Valley is located 2500 meters above sea level and is approximately 14000 m long and 1000 m wide. It is surrounded by the Bamiyan Great Cliff of 120 m high on the north side and a plateau of 50 m high on the south side. The planned area for the Bamiyan Museum is located on this plateau. The East and West Giant Buddha statues and many Buddhist caves were carved into the Bamiyan Great Cliff. There are farms throughout the Bamiyan Valley with long stretches of potato fields. The Bamiyan River runs through the center of the valley. New local bazaars have developed along the Bamiyan River and become larger year by year. The former bazaar located along the street in front of the Bamiyan Great Cliff.
　The Bamiyan Great Cliff is backed by the Kuh-i Sangichaspan Mountains, and the Kuh-i Baba Mountains with Mount Foladi, span the back side of the plateau. Both mountain ranges are covered with snow in winter and snowmelt water from the mountains flows into the valley throughout the year. The plateau, with scarps of over 45 degrees, provides remarkable and unique views of the Bamiyan Great Cliff spreading a distance of 1300 m, as well as the landscape of the Bamiyan Valley. The airport is located on the back side of the plateau. The planned area for the museum is located on the edge of the plateau only one km north of the airport.

　The museum's long corridor will extend toward the west from the domed assembly hall and lie parallel to the cliffs. Visitors can thus enjoy the landscape of the Bamiyan Great Cliff while walking though the corridor. The east side of the planned area will be developed in accordance with the land’s shape and a Cave Garden will be proposed. Inaccessible caves will be reconstructed here. Visitors will experience the atmosphere inside of the caves in the Cave Garden. A library, meeting rooms, and other facilities will be arranged around the assembly hall. As a whole this complex will serve as a culture center as well as museum.