21st Memar Award Jury Report

The 21st Memar Award ceremony was held in October 2021. The winners, honoured projects and finalists are presented in this issue. The competition was held in two rounds, as in past years. In the first round, an elimination stage held on 4 Shahrivar 1400, 70 of the 254 projects submitted in the four categories — Residential: Individual Dwellings, Residential: Apartment Buildings, Renovation, and Public Buildings — advanced to the semi-finals. The second round of judging took place on 10 and 11 Mehr 1400, from which 40 projects reached the final and 19 were selected as winners and honoured.

The jurors of this round of the Memar Award were Babak Zirak, Mohammad Majidi, Mehran Khoshro, Alireza Taghaboni, and Sara Kalantari. On the occasion of the publication of Memar 129, on the theme of Iranian vernacular and local architecture (Hamedan), a film about Hamedan titled 'Hagmataneh' was prepared and shown at the start of this round's ceremony.

Judging criteria for the Memar Award are as follows: creativity and innovation in design and in the use of materials and building technology; creative confrontation with the specific problems of the project, including economic constraints, site conditions (dimensions and proportions), regulatory and legal procedures (especially in cities), and technical difficulties; precision and innovation in detailing; and attention to the surrounding environment and climatic conditions, environmental values and social commitments. The final judgment of each project is reached not by scoring each of these criteria separately and averaging the score, but by a judgment about the totality of the project.

Projects are divided into the four categories above, and the following stages are followed for each category. (1) All works of a single category are placed before the jurors at once, so that, after viewing them all, the works that all the jurors declare unfit are set aside. Even one juror's vote for a work to remain keeps it in. Each juror is given a sheet of coloured stickers of their own colour, and at this stage each sticker represents a negative vote on a project; remaining projects advance to the semi-final. (2) From the semi-final projects, each juror chooses the works they consider top, unranked, marking each with their own coloured sticker — which here represents a positive vote. Works that no juror selects as top are set aside. The selected works are the finalists. (3) Each juror separately ranks 1st, 2nd and 3rd from the finalists. Three points go to the first, two to the second, one to the third. The sum of the jurors' points determines the rankings. (4) From the finalists, the jurors may also declare some to be honoured. If the others agree, the title becomes definitive. The tables that follow show the results of these votes.

On the basis of the above process, the 19 winners and honoured of the 21st Memar Award were chosen in four categories: Residential (Individual Dwellings), Residential (Apartment Buildings), Renovation, and Public Buildings.

Residential — Individual Dwellings

Final result: 1st — A House in Jolfa District (9 pts); 2nd — The Single-Vault House (8 pts); 2nd — Dasht-e-Chehel Villa (8 pts); 3rd — The House With No Head or Tail (4 pts); 4th — The Field House (1 pt)

Honoured: The Man & The House — for the innovative approach to the typology of the pitched roof. (Honoured projects are chosen by the vote of all five jurors.)

Residential — Apartment Buildings

Final result: 1st — The Houses Between River & Stream (10 pts); 1st — Approximation House (10 pts); 2nd — The Alley House (6 pts); 3rd — Kamran Residential Building (4 pts)

Renovation

Final result: 1st — Pink Platform (15 pts); 2nd — Newton Glasses Gallery (9 pts); 3rd — 1330 House (6 pts)

Honoured: Amirkabir University Innovation Centres — for creating a pattern of intervention and the spreading of innovation centres in educational complexes. Baam-Lab — for creating an experimental pattern for the revival of the rooftop with research programmes. Khaneye Hayatdar — for creating an intervention pattern for the preservation and elevation of urban facades.

Public Buildings

Final result: 1st — Jadgal Elementary School (15 pts); 2nd — Hitra Office & Commercial Building (8 pts); 3rd — Landscape of Nik Hospital (4 pts); 4th — Plasco Commercial Building (2 pts); 5th — Namafaza Pavilion (1 pt)

Honoured: Sarv Office Building — for creating an urban facade by reviewing a ready skeleton, while also bringing a porous and quality space to the interior, and at the same time resolving discussions of the 'third facade' and the regulation of light to the inside of the project.