This project was introduced to our office with two serious issues. First, due to its proximity to Qeytarieh Boulevard, the client was uncertain whether the zoning should be commercial or residential. Second, the plot dimensions were extremely asymmetric: the northern side measured just 3 metres while the southern side was 15 metres. Moreover, because of the plot's unusual shape, advancing to 60 percent of its length yielded only 60 percent of its area.
Proximity to Qeytarieh Park and the Second Pahlavi-era buildings of Shemiran on one hand, and the old garden-houses of Chizar village on the other, alongside these two fundamental issues, gave direction to our design. In planning, we were compelled to place the stairwell and elevator in the centre of the building. The elevator's adjacency to the eastern property wall became an opportunity: by eliminating the cantilever in that section, the facade was divided into two independent volumes, and this initial idea shaped the entire elevation.
Throughout the design process, the aim was to define these two southern and northern volumes as entirely independent and suspended, detached from the ground floor at every point, each possessing its own separate identity. The metal awnings above the windows were an interpretation of the traditional tin canopies typical of this district, which remain in use today. The brick arches both reinforce the sense of the volume's solidity and reference the old brick arches of Shemiran.
All facade materials, from the bricks to the stonework at the lower levels, are modular. In the design, we endeavoured to borrow elements and forms from the past while bearing in mind, in the overall composition, the notion of the present time and an architectural commitment to the contemporary age.