HOUSE OF 40 KNOTS

3rd Place, Apartment Buildings — 14th Memar Award

The House of 40 Knots is a residential building in one of Tehran's middle-class neighborhoods. The building has five floors and ten small residential units designed for educated people with moderate to low income, seeking to demonstrate that architecture is not a product of expensive materials or advanced construction technology, and that even with a modest budget, different social classes can benefit from thoughtful architecture.

This building, which has a complex design, was executed with a special construction method using low cost and unskilled labor. Alongside the building design, specific construction methods were also developed. The designers believe that in a country like Iran, with medium-level construction technology and unskilled labor, project-specific construction methods must be invented so the project can adapt to local construction conditions and achieve the intended design results without the slightest compromise to the architectural design.

HANDWOVEN CARPET AND FACADE CONSTRUCTION METHOD

The volume and outer skin design employs a method that made executing the complex brick weave possible using available means. This method bears similarities to carpet weaving. In carpet weaving, one or several people sit behind the loom and weave the carpet while someone reads the pattern for them in a specific rhythm. The pattern reader does not necessarily know carpet weaving and need not be aware of the overall design.

In the House of 40 Knots, a simple laborer sits behind the rebars that serve as the bricks' structure, placing pre-drilled bricks onto the rebars. The arrangement and manner of placing the bricks follows an instruction manual read by another person. In this manual, different rows of bricks are numbered. With this method, the complex brick weave can be executed by two simple laborers.