The third annual gathering of the Society of Iranian Architectural Engineers was held in Mehr of this year, sponsored by the Unique Pipe Company, at the Iranian Artists' Forum (Khaneh-ye Honarmandan) in Tehran. In addition to members of the Society's cultural association, a large number of the instructors and companions of the children's architecture workshop, members of the graphics, design and printing group, and the translators and editors of the films and articles — together with many architects and architecture students — were present.
The papers presented at the gathering were: the message of the Society's secretary on the occasion of the third annual gathering (Kamran Shahinfar); “The Bam Project — an introduction to the design competition for the Municipality building, City Council and City Hall of Bam” (Mahvash Mehrafshar); a commemoration of the Iranian architect Hadi Mirmiran (Amin Sharafeddin); a report on the activities of the Society of Iranian Architectural Engineers; the message of the International Union of Architects (UIA) to the Society; “Toward the twenty-second World Congress of Architecture”; an introduction to the competition for the Georges Pompidou Cultural Centre (translated and edited by Keyvan Khatir, Samira Behrouz and Neda Ghiasi); an introduction to six architecture films — the Johnson building in the United States, Siza's school of architecture in Porto, the town hall and city association of Säynätsalo in Finland (Alvar Aalto), and the Satolas TGV station in France (film translation and editing by Taraneh Palda and Morteza Shahinfar; introductions arranged by Samira Behrouz and Neda Ghiasi); a report on the second children's architecture workshop (Hamidreza Naser Nasir and colleagues); the Iranian Architecture Education Workshop (Mohammadreza Haeri); “Introduction and criticism of contemporary Iranian architecture,” comprising the five sessions of the architecture-review series (Mehrdad Golmohammadi, Aliakbar Saremi, Kourosh Rafiei, Yahya Fayouzi, Reza Aliabadi — presented by Iman Reisi); and an architectural photography exhibition (the India experience).
In his address, Kamran Shahinfar, the Society's secretary, gave explanations about how the Society of Architectural Engineers had taken shape, the founding years of the schools of architecture and the activity of architecture-education centres. He went on to point to the cities' need for architects and for their craft and art, and reported on the Society's activities in the past year — including membership in the International Union of Architects (UIA), the official registration of the Society, and its presence on the High Council of the Iranian Artists' Forum.
After this report and the screening of a film about the Säynätsalo town hall and city association (the work of Alvar Aalto), the report of the Bam project working group was presented by Mahvash Mehrafshar, a member of the board of the Society of Iranian Architectural Engineers. In her report she explained the construction of a health complex at four points in the city of Bam, a rapid survey of 600 damaged houses in Bam, and the holding of the design competition for the Municipality building, City Council and City Hall of Bam. At the close of the report, the Mayor of Bam and two representatives of the competition jury — the engineers Mohammad Kazem Moinzadeh and Bijan Shafei — presented the prizes; the Semnan Tile Company sponsored the second and third prizes. Bijan Shafei, a member of the jury, read a poem he had composed in this connection, on the ruined city.
Bam, still! / The many and the nothing! / From the great turmoil, / the ruined place, / the tearing of the soul, / death, walking gracefully among the ruins. / Bam, still: / the many and the dust. / Empty, / full, dust and clay, / gone to the wind, gone into the earth, / seated upon the earth — / Bam, / with less than hope, / distant and unwalled, / with wolves and countless forgetting.
