Khaki House

Khaki House is a residential project in the historic village of Fahran near Qahderijan, Isfahan, that received the unanimous 1st Place in Individual Dwellings at the 23rd Memar Award — all five jurors awarded it first place, earning the maximum 15 points. Designed by Pedram Izadi Boroujeni of Izadi Architecture Studio (Ez Studio), the house occupies a 600 m² site with just 60 m² of built area.

The design philosophy centers on the idea that sometimes not-building can give rise to a space whose feeling and atmosphere no construction could ever produce — that subtracting from what exists becomes adding to what does not. The house is conceived as an alley that became a dwelling: a serpent gliding languidly through bamboo reeds, fashioning a world of dancing light and reed stalks so that between every sliver of light a new world might arise. Cozy corners and compositions of light and shadow bring into being intoxicating micro-worlds in unity with the whole of the building.

The house was built using rammed earth construction, with soil excavated from the ground, graded, processed, poured layer by layer into large wooden formwork, and pounded and compressed by hand and mallet. This construction was realized under the guidance of locals who had spent years working with earth and were familiar with its temperament. Earth is in harmony with nature — durable, fire-resistant, secure, and intimate — holding sound within itself. At night it stores the moisture needed to produce the coolness of day, making it the finest choice for cladding a desert-edge building.

With its earthy bearing and humility blended with pride, with low energy consumption and modest cost, Khaki House gradually took form to stand firmly in its place, endure for years in the bosom of its homeland, and ultimately, without polluting the environment, rest peacefully in the embrace of nature. The house simultaneously possesses the comfort of urban living and the simplicity of a rural countenance — a newcomer that quickly finds its place in the heart of the village.