UK firm Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has unveiled the design for the Alisher Navoi International Scientific Research Centre in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent.

The 23,000 sq m development will contain the Navoi State Museum of Literature, a 400-seat auditorium, a research centre and a 200-student residential school specialising in Uzbekistan’s language, literature and music.

The project contains common social spaces to encourage people with different backgrounds and specialisations to mingle.

The centre’s arched facades and interiors reference Uzbekistan’s traditional curvilinear architecture, made by bricks produced in local kilns.

Multiple courtyards will allow natural light and ventilation into the site, and hollow arches with openings will help cool the building.

When the wind is not blowing, the arches become thermal chimneys that allow warm air to escape through openings at their tops. In warmer months, fans and misting will cool the air before it circulates within the structure.

The site is named after Alisher Navoi, a 15th-century Timurid poet whose work founded Turkic literature and influenced Uzbekistan’s culture.

Buro Happold will act as the project’s engineering, structural and masterplan consultant.

The centre will anchor the cultural quarter within Tashkent New City, a 25,000ha district in the centre of the capital, masterplanned by the UK’s Cross Works, that will help to accommodate Uzbekistan’s growing population.