Holy Cross Chapel, Ararat Club, Tehran

In the process of the formation of modern Tehran in the last century-- particularly the considerable developments in the time of the first Pahlavi, the rapid change of the capital, the emergence of modern architecture, and consequently, the construction of valuable official and residential buildings with their distinct character--the works of pioneering Armanian architects enjoy a respectable position and value. The works of Rostom Voskanian can be considered a continuation of the works of reputable architects such as Vartan Avanesian, Paul Abkar, Gabriel Georgian, Avdis Ohanjanian, Leon Babayan and Eugene Aftandil- ians among others. His creativity, like that of his predecessors, found its permanent place in the modern and contemporary architecture of Iran. After designing the enormous Ararat Cultural/Sport Center construct- ed between 1969 and 1975 on a 74,000sqm lot on the northern wing of Vanak Village, he accepted the design of Holy Cross Chapel, aka the Church of Ararat Club. This large piece of land is the remainder of the northern wing of Armenians old cemetery in Vanak and is adjacent to a dense residential texture, known as Armenian Castle, housing a church and small buildings distinguishable in character from their surroundings. Today, there is noth- ing left of the walls of this castle and its previous ambience. The space of the chapel is devoid of decorations typical of Christian chapels where walls and ceiling are richly decorated with ornamentation, paintings narrating religious stories and saints’ portraits. The extraordi- nary simplicity of undecorated spaces and the continuous use of exposed reinforced concrete without any additional finishing are in complete contrast to the traditional Christian chapels showing signs of piety and an independence of spaces from any additional decoration. Although the building as a whole follows the style of modern architecture, it pays close attention to minute details such as symmetry of forms and dimensions and applies a very careful geometry to the interior spaces, creating a cross out of its perpendicular axes. Most importantly, the orientation of the main altar towards the East and the entrance towards the West is a clever reference to religious Christian architecture. Voskanian, who is known not only as an architect, but also a painter and sculptor, designed the smallest chapel of the Armenians in form of a huge sculpture standing on a vast green landscape.