Paakat residential building

Paakat Residential Building in Isfahan responds to the loss of communal living spaces in contemporary Iranian urbanism. The architects reflected on how, not long ago, sibeh courtyards — semi-public urban spaces — sheltered extended families house by house, and enclosed courtyards sheltered individual families room by room. These spaces gifted the sky the moment one stepped from beneath the roof. Today, however, family members live scattered across different parts of cities, countries, or the world, in apartments where stepping out the door reveals only an enclosed, dreary corridor with a low ceiling and an elevator. The fundamental question driving the design was: where is the sky — that mysterious blue canopy shared by all people? In Paakat, the architects gifted the sky to the residents with a character aligned with the general culture of Isfahan's people. The design reintroduces the essential spatial qualities of traditional courtyard living — openness to the heavens, communal gathering spaces, and the intimate relationship between dwelling and sky — within the constraints and economics of a contemporary apartment building. Paakat won First Place in the Apartment Buildings category at the 20th Memar Award (2020), recognized for its poetic yet practical approach to recovering the lost connection between domestic life and the open sky in Isfahan's residential architecture.