Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity and Tradition in Central Asia

Tashkent Modernist Architecture is a group of ten buildings and urban complexes built between the 1960s and the early 1990s, nine of them along the newly planned axes of the rebuilt centre of Tashkent, the Uzbek capital. Tashkent became capital of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in 1930, and a general plan stressing green space and modern housing guided buildings designed to resist earthquakes and suit the hot climate.

Early on 26 April 1966 an earthquake struck directly beneath the city centre at a depth of 3 to 8 km. More than 80 percent of the city was destroyed and 200,000 to 300,000 people lost their homes. Modernisation had begun before the earthquake, but the disaster turned rebuilding into a project on a far larger scale, with workers sent from across the Soviet Union and 100,000 new homes built by 1970.

Architects from design institutes in Moscow and Tashkent worked elements of Central Asian architecture into the new buildings. The components include the Kosmonavtlar metro station, Chorsu Market, the Peoples' Friendship Palace and the State Museum of History. The property was inscribed at the 48th session of the World Heritage Committee, held in Busan, South Korea, in July 2026.