After the elimination round, 30 projects advanced to the semi-finals of the 9th Memar Award — 19 residential buildings and 11 public buildings. From these, the jury selected 10 finalists: 6 were ranked as winners (1st–3rd place in each category) and 3 received Jury Selection honors. The remaining semifinalists represent a cross-section of contemporary Iranian architecture that merited sustained jury discussion.

The semifinalists were drawn from across Iran, with the majority located in Tehran, and notable entries from Isfahan, Mazandaran, Karaj, Shiraz, and other cities. The jury noted an encouraging diversity in building types, from private villas to commercial towers, sports complexes to cultural centers.

Semifinalists — Residential Buildings (19 projects)

The 19 residential semifinalists included projects ranging from individual villas in the Alborz foothills to multi-unit apartment buildings in central Tehran. The jury observed that while many residential entries showed formal ambition, fewer demonstrated the internal consistency and spatial resolution that characterized the eventual winners.

Notable residential semifinalists included villas in Lavasan, Kish, and Mazandaran province, as well as urban apartment buildings that attempted to transcend the typical Tehran residential formula. Several projects explored the relationship between interior domestic space and the natural landscape, while others grappled with the challenge of creating dignified urban housing on constrained city lots.

Semifinalists — Public Buildings (11 projects)

The 11 public building semifinalists encompassed office buildings, cultural centers, sports facilities, commercial complexes, and educational institutions. Franco Micucci noted that the public building entries generally demonstrated greater formal ambition than their residential counterparts, with several projects successfully engaging with contemporary international architectural discourse.

The public building semifinalists included projects from Tehran’s commercial corridors, Isfahan’s science parks, and smaller cities seeking to establish architectural identity through civic buildings. The jury paid particular attention to how each project negotiated the relationship between programmatic demands and formal expression.

Selection Statistics