Pedri Guesthouse

The story of the floral motifs of the Pedri Guesthouse, or the rental unit of a buyer in Frankfurt. Design started in 2006; the client wanted to build 1,500 m² of construction with 12 apartments for short-term rental over four storeys. Our design was presented and the building permit was obtained on that basis.

At the same time we suggested to the client to add the 800 m² plot of his paternal home to the project — but because that would have required separate sale, use and reclassification rights for the two plots, the proposal wasn’t accepted. Given how small the original central courtyard was, and the chance of working with the existing old building and its front garden, in 2007 we put a new proposal to him: leave the title of the two plots untouched, but allow a setback on the garden plot so we could also work into the paternal-home plot in the new design. The setback let him separate the lots at any time and gave the building a small courtyard — although the footprint dropped to about 370 m².

Design ideas. The core idea was that the building should work with the city and its natural neighbourhood, with the site features and with the old courtyard — and impose nothing on them.

City and neighbourhood. The building is split into three pieces so the grain of the urban fabric is not broken; even the pieces are not rigid — they have channels for the surrounding fabric to penetrate. The skyline is also respected: every piece sits at the same height as its immediate neighbour, while the middle piece is shorter so that, seen from a distance, the project occupies less surface.

Natural environment. The Sool Mountain and its foothill park — Sarcheshmeh Park — are visible from the adjacent main street (Sarcheshmeh). For that reason the project’s pieces hold apart from each other so the Khansar landscape stays in view.

Topography. The five-metre level difference across the sloping site led us to look for a way around the standard apartment model — so we wouldn’t be forced into new patterns with no roots in the region’s culture.

The old building and courtyard. Putting the new building face-to-face with the old building and courtyard, while bringing many benefits, also created design difficulties — the footprint of the project shrank, but it now drew on the heritage of the family and the beautiful natural courtyard.

Jury Commentary

Mehdi Alizadeh: The choice of building materials — in the façade and inside — is entirely uniform, avoiding any clash. The design method is consistent with those materials. Consideration of the programme on the basis of the way new domestic life flows is reflected in the smooth and elegant outer face of the building.
Seyyed Reza Hashemi: For proving the architect’s artistry in arranging very ordinary — even small and humble — spaces inside an utterly ordinary urban fabric, with the most ordinary and inexpensive materials; and for offering a solution for the modernisation of the architecture of old fabrics in small cities.