In this issue of Memar, we begin the section devoted to Bam with Mehdi Alizadeh's remarks on the reconstruction of Bam, followed by a report on the design competition for the buildings of Bam's Municipality, City Council, and City Hall. The text on the reconstruction of Bam was prepared by Mr. Alizadeh at the request of Memar Manesh Institute, the Iranian Society of Consulting Architects, and the House of Artists, and was presented at one of the association's public sessions held on the subject of Bam. In the design competition for the municipal buildings of Bam, twenty-three submitted designs were reviewed. Over one hundred architects defended their proposals in two rounds of jury evaluation, and the results are worthy of critical assessment.
First, regardless of whatever the responsible organizations have done on this matter, it must be said that the initial involvement of certain individuals and institutions in Bam's reconstruction was encouraging—though based solely on good intentions, not on a coherent program.
We must look at the issue of Bam with fresh eyes and see it as a historic opportunity, without forgetting the suffering inflicted upon the people of Bam and the absence of urban public spaces in many Iranian cities. These deficiencies are things that have ruined the city more than the earthquake itself, and the opportunity to address them through reconstruction has been squandered. The first step in reconstruction should be that no public or governmental building is rebuilt in its former shape.
Consider that another city with a natural potential area of fifty to sixty thousand hectares—Tehran, continuously and extensively—has already consumed at least eighty percent of its natural landscape through construction, yet still regards its problems through the lens of a lack of public spaces.
Efforts have been made and actions taken to resume the rhythm of life, but does it merely mean that Bam, this ruin, must eventually be built and put in order, and nothing more? To say that our unified urban planning is merely a construction factory would be a false statement; yet we do not move forward, nor do we critique ourselves—have we truly done nothing?
Looking at Bam and the way the overseeing bodies are shaping it, the outcome seems to us not inevitable. The quality, cost, and product that they demand from urban planners is not a good example.
The question of urban roles is a crucial matter for Bam. Urban structure, including urban infrastructure, must begin from a new form. At the same time, we must acknowledge that Bam itself possesses historical value and must be examined as an integrated whole.
The design competition for the Municipality, Council, and City Hall was certainly organized based on all spatial considerations. The ambiguities and unclear points in the competition brief could have resulted in merely a showroom being built. A fundamental and critical question was whether it would be better to define precedents in advance. None of this was clear.
The far larger questions of this competition remain unanswered—what kind of city does Bam want to be? Integration or fragmentation? Continuity or rupture? Can the reconstruction of Bam, together with the preservation of the Citadel, accept a new lease on life? This municipal competition had the great virtue of addressing urban spaces.
The ambiguities could have delivered the final blow—as happens with all plans that come to nothing—producing a failed city from the competition. Fortunately, the quality of the competition demonstrated its soundness, and the level of the architects' proposals was responsive. The fundamental dimension of architectural thought represented a portion of Bam's urban spaces, all within the framework of a municipal competition.
We wanted only to build a single building that at best would become a decent hall. The urban requirements existed within the context of a real natural landscape, and only the points of convergence were being addressed.
The reconstruction of Bam should have been the soundest of competitions—and with a fundamental dimension of urban thinking, not merely a building project, the competition could say what it wanted to say, and a city could emerge from it.