Shamil Mohammadzadeh, born in 1945, graduated from Shahid Beheshti University in 1972, started his career by cooperating with consulting engineers and engineering offices from 1967. Through his cooperation with Artec Consulting Engineers, Mohammadzadeh has designed the sport complexes and Women's Multi-purpose Sport Hall in Tabriz, Tabriz Stadium and Esfahan Stadium. He also has a private office. Saremi's Office Building, Maghzi's Office Building, the Islamic World Communication Centre, and Azadi Cinema (for competition) are some of his private projects.
The Poetic Dimension of Technology — Kamran Afshar Naderi
One of the important dimensions of architecture is building technology. I naturally do not mean here the methods for solving technical problems such as static calculations, heating or cooling; I have in mind the poetic dimension of technology. Architecture can be directed mainly at form; in such a case the task of technology is to realise that form and make it work. Materials and technical parts "exist," but are not "present"; only abstract surfaces, colours and masses show themselves. The building resembles a blown-up model that has no gender of its own — as if its body had no skeleton.
Architecture is by nature an impure art and cannot be reduced to the discussion of form. Reinforced concrete can give rise to very varied forms; this material allows the designer to imagine the work with the freedom of a sculptor. Mechanical services, too, today can be deployed solely as a service — not as any tangible "physical presence." Structure, services, and the character of materials, once they have found their place in a building and taken whatever form, speak their own language: anyone who would converse with them must know the rules of that language. Stone is no different; it has its own language. The veins of a stone and its uneven colour intervene in the designer's will. To use stone, one must wrestle with it. For one who brings materials, their characters, the structure, the services and the execution details into his architecture, creativity means finding the best and most effective way of employing all these elements and the capacities of the building in its physical sense.
This architecture is not one-hundredth or one-two-hundredth of full size, miraculously magnified; it is "one to one" architecture, in which every part is created and designed at its real scale. Attention to technology is therefore not a sign of architecture's weakness before engineering, but means the extension of the aesthetic dimensions and the widening of creative activity during the stages of working design and construction. Architecture — like painting and music — is created in the act of performance, and without attention to the myriad possibilities of execution it cannot flower.
If I wanted to give an example, to name a designer who plays architecture as one plays music, Shamel Mohammadzadeh would surely be one of the first to pass before my mind — a building made of red stone that, with the curiosity and persistence of a researcher, experiments with and executes dozens, perhaps hundreds, of exemplary building elements. This is a building that speaks with a human being. The outer skin, the inner face, the structure, the services, the floors and ceilings are distinct both technically and aesthetically, and the building has what one might call full "legibility." It is an industrial building made craftwise — just like a model or a sample.
The building industry has never moved forward by means of buildings that were themselves industrially produced. It is technology that moves industry forward, and technology itself comes out of exactly these craftsman-like inventions. All the works of High-Tech architecture have been produced craftwise, because they are unique and pioneering; production methods come afterwards, accordingly.
Shamel has so far produced only a handful of works, and he cannot be blamed for that. So long as clients in Iran and those who hold the pulse of building act pettily, without self-confidence, and with no concern for originality or creativity, men like Shamel cannot do more. In any case, in our discussion quantitative measures are not the point; and Shamel, by the evidence of even these few works, has shown such maturity that he may rightly be placed among the best architects of Iran.
Mr. Maghzi's Office Building — Employer: Hassan Maghzi. Designer and Manager: Shamil Mohammadzadeh. Construction: Employer, under the management of Hassan Maghzi. Design Team: Farrokh Malek, Majid Jelveh, Manoochehr Babahadi, Mohammad Khalilpour, Sirous Pilehroodi. Structure: Mehdizadegan. Mechanical Engineering: Poorzand, Atabaki (Cetec Consulting Engineers). Electrical Engineering: Mahram (Artec Consulting Engineers), Gital Company. Exterior and Interior Colour: Hossein Ghafari. Metal: Grating Company, Shokoohi. Photographs: Ataollah Omidvar.
Karoon Cement Factory Administrative Building — Employer: Karoon Cement Industry Company. Consulting Engineers: Sazeh-Andishan. Design: Shamil Mohammadzadeh, Mohammad Khalilpour.
Booshehr Cement Factory's Control Building — Employer: Booshehr Cement Factory. Construction: Shahsanam. Consulting Engineers: Sazeh-Andishan. Design: Shamil Mohammadzadeh, Mohammad Khalilpour, Manoochehr Babahadi.
Mrs. Saremi's Office Building — Karim Khan Street, 1982-85. Employer: Azam Saremi. Design: Shamil Mohammadzadeh. Construction: by the employer, under the management of Mehrdad Saremi. Structure, electrics and mechanics have been designed for 10 stores, but three stores have been constructed as yet.