Recasting Cultural Infrastructure: On AAU Anastas’s Aga Khan Award–Winning Wonder Cabinet
Wonder Cabinet / AAU ANASTAS.
Image Courtesy of AAU ANASTAS
Media Source: Arch Daily (USA)
Date: 12 January 2026
Among the 2025 Aga Khan Award winners is AAU Anastas and their project, Wonder Cabinet in Palestine, whose central aim is to serve as a haven for culture and creativity and a bridge between design and production. Beyond this meaningful project, AAU Anastas—working from offices in Bethlehem, Palestine, and Paris, France—has built a…
Among the 2025 Aga Khan Award winners is AAU Anastas and their project, Wonder Cabinet in Palestine, whose central aim is to serve as a haven for culture and creativity and a bridge between design and production. Beyond this meaningful project, AAU Anastas—working from offices in Bethlehem, Palestine, and Paris, France—has built a broad portfolio since 2015. “The building is inspired by a common Palestinian typology featuring ground-floor commercial "garages" or spaces, a staircase, and housing. The Wonder Cabinet's proportions are based on the dimensions of these garages, repeated in plan and section. Built like infrastructure with minimal finishes, it is designed to be an unintimidating space that encourages experimentation—allowing occupants to manipulate it, hang artworks, modify facades, and live within it,” explain Elias and Yousef Anastas, partners at AAU ANASTAS architects.