News
- 08-10-2026
BUKHARA IS NOT A MUSEUM
Architecture
News
Preserving a World Heritage city while allowing it to remain a living city. Bukhara is one of the world’s great historic cities. Its historic centre, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1993, bears witness to more than two millennia of cultural, commercial and urban history. Wilmotte & Associés and its partners are working on a long-term masterplan to preserve this unique identity while supporting the city’s evolution. Bringing together heritage, mobility, landscape, water, tourism and climate, the project approaches Bukhara not as a city frozen in time, but as a living city.
FROM MASTERPLAN TO PROJECTS
This vision is taking shape through some strategic interventions: Eternal Bukhara, Samanid Park and the Ark Esplanade — three distinct sites connected by a shared ambition to bring heritage, landscape and contemporary urban life together.
At Eternal Bukhara, a new 32.6-hectare cultural and landscaped park creates a transition between the historic center and the contemporary city. Gardens, water and local planting form a green corridor around a mixed cultural, hospitality and commercial programme.
At Samanid Park, the project reconnects a historic landscape with the city, placing the Samanid Mausoleum at the heart of a renewed park inspired by the chahar bagh garden tradition, water and the memory of the site.
Around the Ark, the project restores the historic relationship between the fortress and the city. The esplanade and Registan Square become part of a continuous public space extending towards Samanid Park, with greater pedestrian priority and renewed connections between the city’s monuments.
HERITAGE AS A FOUNDATION
Bukhara’s heritage extends beyond its monuments to its streets, courtyards, markets, water systems and public spaces. The masterplan builds on these existing structures to accommodate contemporary uses while preserving the layers of history that shape the city.
Water, vegetation and shade are also part of this approach, reconnecting Bukhara with its landscape traditions while improving comfort, biodiversity and climate resilience.
A LIVING CITY
As Bukhara attracts more international visitors, its transformation must also serve the people who live there. Housing, local commerce, public spaces and everyday activities remain central to the vision.
Preserving Bukhara does not mean choosing between heritage and transformation. It means allowing one of the world’s great historic cities to remain what it has always been: a living city.
