A Cyber Cafe for Dushanbe: Interview with the Architect

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A Cyber Café for Dushanbe: Interview with the Architect

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David Barrett is the lead project architect for the Cyber Café. He first visited Dushanbe in January 2001 to study the proposed building site, to meet with the chief architect for the city of Dushanbe, and to gather information to use in creating a design for the building.

Question: What was your thinking about the design of a Cyber Café for the people of Dushanbe?

David Barrett: Unlike Tajikistan, we in America don¹t have a deep-rooted history and architectural tradition from which to draw in the design of a building. The teahouse tells us who the Tajiks are, but designing a building that tells them who we are and what our values are is more complicated.

Q: Which of our values would you like to communicate in the café?

DB: Our gift committee, which is made up of people from all walks of life, identified several, including being open, having a free spirit, thinking in terms of possibilities and transformation. I like Bucky Fuller¹s concept of Americans being "verbs" as opposed to "nouns". Also we in the American West are inspired by nature.

Q: How are these values translated into the architecture of the café?

DB: Our design team wanted to get away from closed-in box-shaped spaces so we have few interior walls. We opened up the interior to the outside, brought in lots of natural light, and connected the building to its natural surroundings.

Also, we felt that it would be a good idea to express our feelings about environmentalism and sustainable design principles. So we¹re going for solar voltaic cells to help power the computers, and provide for natural day lighting and ventilation. The building will also be accessible to all. We hope that like the teahouse it to be used by people of all ages.

Q: What building materials do you have in mind to use?

DB: As much as possible, we plan to use materials that are available in Dushanbe, from concrete to the stones and boulders that are available there.

Q: Will there be any other Boulder or American West touches?

DB: Yeah. We have a ... gathering place where performances and discussion could take place and where possibly the people of the two sister cities could link up using interactive video technology. And there will be a kitchen and eating area where possibly American-style foods could be sampled. And the outdoors playground and bridge will remind some people of what we have on Pearl Street.

In the end, the most important thing is that the Tajiks will find the building beautiful in the same way that we feel about the Teahouse, and that they won¹t get too tied up in analyzing the architecture itself. That¹s my goal.

David visited Dushanbe again in 2004 and 2006 to look at the new site and has since change the design to reflect the new location. The new design is reflected in the illustrations found throughout this website.