Project Manager & Principal Architect: Bahram Shekourian
Design Team: Mohammad Aref Tohidi, Behzad Mokhles, Ramin Rahrovani, Natasha Dehshiri
3D Modeling: Amir Fazeli
Structure & Supervision: Khosro Hariri
Site Supervision: Behzad Mokhles
Construction Manager: Maryam Shafii, Maziar Najafpour
Design Term: October 2003 – March 2004
Construction Term: April 2004 – October 2005
Site Area: 6,500 m² · Built Area: 3,500 m²
The Popli Khalatbari Vocational School for Girls was commissioned by the Popli Khalatbari Charitable Foundation, based in London, to serve as a modern educational facility for girls in Tehran. Designed by the Padiav Parth Architectural Group under the direction of Bahram Shekourian, the project received Third Place in the 5th Grand Memar Award (2005) in the Public Buildings category.
The design organizes the school's diverse programmatic requirements — classrooms, workshops, sports facilities, administrative offices, and service areas — into a coherent composition across a 6,500 square meter site, with a total built area of 3,500 square meters. The building's massing is articulated into clearly defined zones: educational, sports, administration, tutors' quarters, services, and playground, as illustrated in the volumetric diagram. This functional clarity ensures intuitive wayfinding for students and staff while allowing each zone to receive appropriate natural light and ventilation.
The building employs a material palette of exposed brick and rendered surfaces, lending it a warm, institutional character appropriate for an educational setting. The entrance canopy features a distinctive curved brick parapet with integrated skylights that filter natural light into the entrance area below. The interplay between the solid brick walls and the transparent glass facades creates a rhythm of openness and enclosure throughout the building.
The interior spaces are characterized by exposed concrete columns and generous ceiling heights, creating an atmosphere of openness within the corridors and common areas. The structural system is left partially exposed, with round concrete columns punctuating the circulation spaces, contributing to a modern yet restrained aesthetic. Color accents — notably the orange-red doors — add warmth to the otherwise neutral interior palette.
Program & Layout
The ground floor accommodates the main entrance hall, administrative offices, a multi-purpose hall, workshops, a buffet area, the sports hall with changing rooms and showers, and service facilities including a mechanical room and caretaker's quarters. The courtyard and playground occupy the central open space, while staff parking is accessed from the entrance road.
The first floor houses the classrooms, a multi-purpose laboratory, library, additional workshops, counseling and guidance offices, teachers' rooms, and the headmaster's suite. A mezzanine level overlooking the sports hall provides spectator stands, connecting the educational wing to the athletic facilities. Voids cut through the floor plate allow visual connections between levels and bring daylight deep into the plan.
The south facade reveals the building's compositional logic — a rhythmic arrangement of projecting and receding volumes clad in a combination of yellow brick and smooth render. The fenestration pattern responds to the interior program: larger windows for classrooms and workshops, smaller openings for service areas. A projecting bay at the upper level introduces a dynamic element to the otherwise planar facade, while the roofline steps to accommodate the varying heights of the internal spaces.