After the ceremony of the seventh Memar Award, two sessions were held with invited architects to canvass views on how to raise the quality of the award; they offered their opinions and suggestions. The text of these statements follows:
Babak Motalebi-nezhad
The annual Memar Award has created notable momentum and motivation among young architects; but the lack of serious participation by established consulting engineers means that this momentum does not reach them, and deprives the young of a real yardstick against which to measure themselves. I suggest that by inviting professional associations to co-organize the award and to help select the jury, the motivation and prestige of the consulting engineers' participation be increased — so that the respected Memar Award, like the AIA Award in the United States, gains broader standing in the country and the professional community.
Reza Daneshmir
Beyond the freshness and vitality it has brought among architects, the Memar Award has produced a marked improvement in the quality of the projects presented over seven years. This effect is visible at least in the work of architects for whom the economic view is not the only concern; the award has helped them to consolidate their views. On the whole I see no reason for fundamental changes to the award, which has done its job well so far; only some adjustments could be made — for example, perhaps it would be better not to have one year devoted to residential and one to non-residential works, but to hold both together so that we have a complete annual record. Competition would certainly become harder, since the number of works would increase as in the first cycle. It would also be good to have a separation by scale.
Bahram Kalantari
Scale is an important matter, and so are building types; but in my view the programme of a project also matters. In a 50,000-square-metre project the programme may be simpler than in a small one. In any case, methods can be found through further discussion. A second important point: the RIBA or AIA competitions have fixed, uniform policies that may not be very interesting — whereas in the Dutch awards, for instance, which are less traditional, all tendencies can take part.
Mohammad Majidi
In my view, seven years of the Memar Award deserve appreciation, and its effect on the architectural community is evident. This award and Memar magazine have had a great effect on how work is distributed in the profession; even now, people approach offices for work having become acquainted — through the Memar Award and magazine — with designers' viewpoints, and choose where they wish to work according to their own tendency. This is a definite advance. Above all, the award and the magazine have, for the first time, made it possible for contemporary Iranian architecture to be presented internationally. I too think little change is needed, but I agree with Daneshmir that perhaps both residential and public groups should be held together, and possibly every two years, so it can be carried out more carefully — though they should be judged separately. It is also better if the types are separated and the categories made more specialized. It would be good, as with the Aga Khan Award, to request detailed questionnaires about project data, so that through an archive of works Iranian architectural information can be gathered and made transferable to a global information network. Beyond all this, it is good for the jurors to see the projects at first hand, and for the award's charter to be provided to all participants.
Iman Raeesi
I would like to begin by recalling a point from Engineer Hashemi's speech at the 1380 Memar Award ceremony. He said: “Tonight our joy is that we feel our architecture has set out on the path of elevation and growth. Although the share of good, valuable architecture in all that is done under the name of architecture is small today, the very fact that good architecture — even in its scarcity — can, beyond its professional function of answering a client's commission, also play a cultural role, that is, define the architecture of its own era, is a great advance for the elevation of architecture.” In my belief, the Memar institution has largely reached this goal and become a respected domestic award; now is the time to consider larger arenas. Over the past seven years, I think the Memar Award has performed better. I have a few suggestions: works should be separated by the client's status; works already published in architecture magazines should not compete, since the anonymity of works matters; the use-type of public-building projects should be separated, as with residential; the jury or their representatives should visit the selected projects; and the results of seven cycles should be published in a book.