Double-Edged Icon: Kings' Memorial Tower / Freedom Square

Historical Background

The Shah had a vision for his nation which he believed he could fulfill: rebuilding Iran into a Great Civilization. But this vision was somehow blurry and ambivalent. He wanted to tap the energies of Iranian Archaism, claiming a direct lineage to Cyrus the Great on the one hand, while on the other the models he sought for this Great Civilization were France and England.

Comparing Iran to West-European countries in the 1960s and 1970s was quite anachronistic and unrealistic. But royal visions are often unattainable and seem overambitious to common mortals. As sine qua non elements of this royal vision, Architecture, Engineering and Urban Planning flourished during the Second Pahlavi Rule, but just like the vision itself, they had a double edge: one aspect stressed modernization, while the other referred back to the grandeur of the culture of old and Islamic Iran.

The Competition

The Committee for the 2500 Years' Celebrations was established in November 1959. The building of Shahyad Tower was one of this committee's many projects. The royal vision was enlarged so that this new Gateway was not only a Memorial Tower for the Pahlavi Rule, but was also meant to glorify all preceding Kings of the Persian Empire. Therefore it was determined that this project would be pursued through a National competition.

On September 1st, 1966, the Competition was announced in a very brief article in the daily Etelaat, and submission was open to all architects. A site was allocated at the crossroad of Tehran's main East/West axis, and 122,375 square meters of land were set aside for the project that was going to be the largest plaza in the world.

The competition called for a monument in any style the architect wished, its height not exceeding 45 meters. Never has there been an architectural competition described as vaguely as this one, clearly showing that no professional staff was involved in the preparation of the competition criteria. According to Eshragh, editor of Honar-o-memari architectural magazine, 21 contestants submitted schemes. Among the jury members were Mohsen Forughi, the most prominent Iranian Architect and former Dean of the School of Fine Arts of Tehran University, and Houshang Seyhun. The winner was Hossein Amanat, a 25-year-old architect who had just graduated from Tehran University's School of Fine Arts.

The Concept

The main concept of Shahyad's design is the chahar-tagh or four-vaults which is the primordial paradigm of Persian Architecture: four pillars rise and are covered by a four-partite dome. In the case of Shahyad, the four pillars fold in a complex system of curvatures and rise to end up in a quasi-square at the top. The plan of the Shahyad Tower reveals four pillars, or rather four buttresses, which are not rectangular in plan, but form a complex weeping-willow shape.

The plan of the square is directly derived from the ceiling plan of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque; except that instead of a circle, it is composed of two halves of two ellipses with two different foci. The geometric analysis of the proportions of the tower shows that it is stocky; it seems to steam or gush in elevation.

The Design

The North-South elevations are quite different from the East-West ones. In the East-West axis which is along the main path from the airport into the city, the arch opening is very generous, and it was designed to remind the viewer of the Tagh-e Kasra, the Sassanid arch entrance to Ctesiphon Palace. On top of the Sassanid arch is a quasi-annular castellated corb which is also repeated on the North-South elevation. The interesting fact about this arch is that it has absolutely no precedent in Islamic architecture, since its sides grow wider as they reach down to the ground.

The treatment of the surface between these two arches whose geometry consists of a regressing series of icepresses is reminiscent of Seyhun's design for the Kamal-ol-Molk Mausoleum. This mosaic design which has been referred to as inspired by the peacock tail motif, is the design of Hossein Amanat; its precedent, before Seyhun's work, can be found in the wall decorations of the Vakil Mosque in Shiraz.

The Modernity of Shahyad

Houshang Seyhun had stepped onto the path of Post-Modernism well ahead of his time. In the West, the first Post-Modern building is considered to be Michael Graves' City Hall of Portland, Oregon, 1980s. Seyhun and his collaborators and students were also very aware of their contemporaries in the West when building the Shahyad Tower.

Today, it is not because of the functions it fulfils as a museum or gateway or convention hall that Azadi tower is alive. It is by the grace of the presence of people, gathered in the square, their voices and their movements, that it receives the gift of life. Azadi tower is a Logos representing the symbolism of the center: because it has been the focal point of all demonstrations and the meeting point for the speeches at the end of such demonstrations. Since the revolution, it really has acquired a strong genius Loci or sense of place.