Mehrdad Iravanian was born in 1957 in Shiraz. He graduated in architecture at USL in United States and returned to Iran in 1991. Scince then he has dedicated himself to design and construction of various architectural and urban projects in Shiraz and neighboring cities. He also teaches at Shiraz Azad University of Iran. Iravanian started his career at the end of the 80’s by organizing building architectural exhibitions, the first of which was named the "gateways". In this way he could start his search for an architectural language, independent from complex functional problems: a search which still goes on as can be observed in his various projects.
An interesting point in Iravanian’s career, which at first draws one’s attention, is the vast range of buildings and architectural projects carried out by him and his office, in the city of Shiraz. These projects, although having different subjects and diverse architectural languages, have a common character distinguishing them from other constructions carried out in recent years in Shiraz.
His wide range of architectural works use pre and post Islamic architectural motifs, the western motifs and codes. In describing his diversity in architectural compositions, he compares an architect to an actor who has to act according to a specific scenario, regardless of current trends in today’s’ architecture. In his projects one can recognize signs of ancient Iranian architecture as in Khajoo Park near the Quran Gateway of Shiraz, motifs of Iranian Islamic architecture in University of Quran, manifestations of Pop Art (Baghe Boland), and even deconstructionist collages in office and commercial buildings and expositions.
Mehrdad Iravanian characterizes his designs as "transition architecture" and his different projects show his efforts to search for new spaces.
