Heshmatollah Monsef

Biography

Heshmatollah Monsef was one of Iran's foremost building services engineers and a foundational figure in the codification of national construction standards. He is best known as the principal author and chair of the specialist committee responsible for drafting the first edition of Chapter 14 (Mechanical Installations) of Iran's National Building Regulations, published in 2001 under the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development. He also led the committee through the first revision of the same chapter and began supervising the third edition in 2014, contributing guidance until his passing. A contributor to Memar Magazine, Monsef wrote on the problems of building services in Iranian construction — analyzing the gap between design intent and execution reality for large public buildings, including issues of contractor weakness, market disorganisation, and non-compliance with standards. His 2002 article "Building Services Difficulties in Construction and Design" (Memar 19) remains a pointed critique of systemic failures in mechanical installation practice. He also contributed a technical article on HVAC systems in places of assembly (Memar 27). In 2004, Monsef served as a juror for the 4th Grand Memar Award — the edition that introduced a Special Prize for Mechanical Design — bringing technical expertise in building services to a jury otherwise composed primarily of architects.