Afshar Naderi
The participation of a great group of architects of different generations in the award shows, more than anything else, the consolidation of this custom and, in general, of cultural-architectural competitions across the country. Given that the good works submitted mostly belong to the past ten years, it is plain to see that Iranian architecture in these years has been fundamentally transformed. An important share of the good works submitted come from various places: the northern coast, Shiraz, Isfahan, Mashhad, Kerman and other cities. Among the participants in the competition, a large number of young architects can be seen; the quality of their work confirms that the country's economic and cultural investment in architecture must be directed mainly towards its young people.
The body of works shows considerable progress in the building industry. Attention to quality and to executive detail is a general characteristic of the schemes presented. Stylistically the works are varied and contain numerous individual tendencies. The argument for variety has also been carried over to the use of materials. Compared with the works of the 1360s decade (1980s), the variety of materials seems greater.
The works submitted, in general, fall into three principal groups: single- or two-unit villas; apartment buildings; and large residential complexes. The greatest creativity, variety, courage and innovation belong to the villa-houses. The discussion of space has been attended to in the design of these buildings. From this point of view, one can say that the architecture tied to the plan and façade of the past has, to some extent, moved towards a more complex architecture in which space is the principal question. Themes of vernacular architecture appear in several cases, and by virtue of new outlooks these works are not repetitive or outdated. Some architects, in designing single- or two-unit houses, have revived forgotten subjects — corridor, iwans, central courtyard, the rooftop — in a new form. Some of the outstanding works have used architecture as an artistic instrument for the critique of common works or as a kind of protest. Their work falls within the realm of art and conceptual art. Experimenting with cheap materials such as cement block and cement render, an attempt to value them and to raise an aesthetic argument by their use, is to be seen in the works of several architects.
Urban apartment houses are generally caught up in the cumbersome problems of municipal regulations and codes. Despite this, some architects have, within the limits of these constraints, achieved innovations. Several of the outstanding projects of this group have managed to present new patterns of the common subject of the apartment house. In some works, an effort to create a kind of urban building in keeping with the spirit and history of the city is also visible. In these works the principal subjects are the functional-spatial organisation of the units in a complex and varied manner, the creation of attractive shared spaces, and the building's façade. In the outstanding works of this group, the avoidance of profiteering near-sightedness and the maximisation of occupied space is evident. The work of these architects shows that allocating part of the usable space to the entrance, the courtyard, and other shared spaces does not detract from the building's value but, on the contrary, increases its economic value. A few examples among the good works submitted have the capacity to become a general model for a part of the urban building stock.
In the mass-housing section, the difficulties reach their maximum. Cultural and economic obstacles have caused the works of this group to be of low charm and creativity. In any case, several principal and basic themes are addressed in these works, the most important of which is prefabrication. The effort to improve the quality of housing through the prefabrication industry deserves appreciation. One of the participants designed his housing complex as an urban block of row-houses. The forgotten subject of the urban façade is, in this work, with little daring but in any case in a relatively rare manner, taken up.
Critique of selected works
After detailed examination of all the works received, and after setting aside a number of works that, by virtue of their subject, fell outside the competition, the jury chose 200 projects as important works. These works fall, in general, into three principal groups: residential complexes, apartment buildings, and villas / one- or two-family houses.
1 — Residential complexes
Building housing in such a way as to satisfy the economic, social, psychological and aesthetic considerations is a difficult task, since these presuppositions generally lead to mutually contradictory results. The Manzarieh Residential Complex, the work of Daryush Shahnavaz, has — through a relatively complex volumetric composition, common-areas and generous terraces — produced a space that to a great extent overshadows the heaviness of the design and of its not-very-tasteful façade and materials. The Pars Residential Complex, by the same designer, raises the old theme of the urban façade. Buildings linked to one another, sited at the edge of the project's irregular plot, organise the site in a relatively bold manner. The aesthetic of the façade is again unsuccessful; if this designer had presented an aesthetic of the same level as his spatial ideas, this work would undoubtedly have been more successful.
2 — Apartment buildings
Two good apartment buildings, built close to one another on Fereshteh Street, are the work of Behrouz Bayat. These two buildings, although they do not raise a fresh artistic question, are of very high quality architecturally, and skill, care, and taste have been applied to their design. In the general spatial organisation and in the design of the façade, the vernacular architecture of Tehran and Shemiran is invoked. In these two buildings the public circulation spaces, entrances, terraces, and balconies are striking and attractive. The façades, owing to the concentration of numerous and dissimilar elements, look somewhat busy, but because of attention to the gradation of weight and lightness in the façade in relation to its meeting with the ground and the sky-line, and likewise because of the careful composition of the façade elements, this character is not disturbing.
The residential building designed by Mohammad Reza Nikbakht in Zafaranieh is attractive thanks to the pleasing colour combination of brick and wood with other materials. But the concentration of varied, dissimilar formal elements — at least beyond the building's capacity — has, at the entrance, made it somewhat hard to digest. The plan, in the manner of placing alongside one another varied spaces — square, rectangular, semi-circular, and hexagonal — recalls archaeological figures; though, by virtue of using scattered elements at times in excess, has on the whole given the building a vivacious character.
House no. 2, by Faryar Javaherian in Pirayesh garden, shows that he has a definite style. His works, as I have noted elsewhere, are pleasant, good and useful, although architecturally and aesthetically they raise no major argument. His architecture is on the whole very self-effacing. Well-composed and well-coloured floor surfaces; numerous references to elements of Iranian architecture which everyone enjoys; warm, inviting interiors with brickwork pointing as ornament at intervals; and the small pool decorated with turquoise tiles are characteristic of his work. The most distinctive feature of Faryar Javaherian's work is the central patio of the house, which, contrary to convention, is decorated in a striking manner.
The Kamranieh Residential Complex, the work of Faramarz Sharifi, mixes the modern duplex pattern with the historical, traditional theme of the central courtyard. The result is a building that, in its outer volume, is more or less a simple rectangular block, but is broken and attractive within. The interior space, although symmetrical, by virtue of the fine scale of its elements and the variety of full and void, with a complex rhythm and balconies, is more successful than the formal face of the outer façade. The relatively complex and varied spatial organisation of the building has not found a fitting equivalent in colour and materials, and from this point of view the building looks somewhat heavy and disharmonious.
3 — Single- or two-family houses
Two more or less similar villas in Mazandaran, the work of Reza Ali-Abadi, deserve attention for the use of unassuming materials and the composition of colour and volume. Villa no. 10, in plan, uses the ancient theme of a nine-square; the outer volume, contrary to the static plan, has an attractive variety and composition of full and void. The architectural details are designed with care and taste. Villa no. 13 brings forward the vernacular architecture of the coastal regions, which is its most striking aspect. The use of cement render and cement block on the façade, and the aesthetic valorisation of these low-value materials, deserve attention.
The Lavasan Villa, the work of Bahram Shokouhian, sits on a long parallelogram plot at the foot of a hill. The project organises the site well, and the usual relation of object-in-context is converted into a coherent constellation in which full/void, closed/open are not divided into hierarchical degrees. The spatial relations, accesses and circulation are entirely three-dimensional and designed across various levels. This building, as a whole, is well-proportioned and well-composed; its dormer is an over-large chimney, somehow unjustified and imposed-symmetrical, and, by being date-stamped, also detracts from the project's appeal.
The Fashandak Villa, the work of Hossein Naseri, with its cruciform plan and an architecture that more or less recalls the rural houses of southern Europe, and the recollection of Panj-Dari (Five-Door) by Mohammad Aghili, with its plain façade and rosette-and-vine windows that frame an interior space recalling the houses of the village, do not raise any particular architectural argument.
The Malekar Villa, the work of Rashid Khomarlou, is a cluster of two-storey villa-houses. Although the overall design lacks innovation, in the composition of volumes, and especially in the form of the windows in whole and detail, it is attractive. The pitched roof and windows do not, apparently, attend carefully enough to climatic matters — wind direction and rain penetration.
The Saadat-Abad Residential Building, the work of Behrouz Pakdaman, is attractive on a difficult and irregular plot. The penthouse and the rooftop have been turned into striking, inventive subjects. Even so, the rhythm and design of the windows seem several steps behind the volumetric composition and spatial organisation of the project.
The Salah-ed-Din-Kala Villa, the work of Shahriar Ghadimi, is admirable in its simplicity and basic character. The typology of the building and the way it is placed on the ground are inspired by vernacular architecture. The architecture is clear, unadorned, and free from intellectual anxieties. With this work, the designer has shown that very simple, small works can also offer good architecture without complex aesthetic devices.
The greatest distinction of the Kordan House by Firouz Firouz is its difference from all the other works submitted. The volumetric composition of the building, although not particularly proportionate to its small dimensions, is very attractive and poetic. The thin horizontal beams behind the roof, in contrast with the full and protruding volume of the dome, the chimneys projecting from the building, and the warm colours of the principal façade, propose an aesthetic that distances itself both from modernism and from classicism. This work, although in some way reminiscent of Hassan Fathy's works, is in its totality fresh. The designer has also treated the interior walls like sculpture, and the details have been designed with artistic care.
The Morshedzadeh House, the work of Amir Hossein Taheri, is, in volume, not particularly attractive, but has rich and varied interior spaces. It seems the building has been designed from the inside. The designer's attention to climatic matters (the flow of air through the building) and his innovation in relatively varied moulds make it built — and so, in spatial organisation, complex and attractive.
The Sadri House, the work of Mohammad Reza Ghaani and Ali Sheykholeslam, is a very interesting project. Were it not for the irregular windows of the eastern part of the building and certain detail-light touches, it would count among the successful works. Its unique distinguishing feature is its unique spatial concept. The project's plot is in the form of a long rectangle; geometrically it has been made use of in its longitudinal elements through corridors, and in its transverse elements through three corridors and a staircase. Corridor and stair, the forgotten elements of residential architecture, have here been valorised and turned into striking elements. The spaces and volumes are layered and nested in such a way that they can be experienced from within. The walls are full of openings, niches, and other architectural events, and the interior spaces are varied, complex, and full of corners to discover and inhabit.
The Navvab-Safavi Block by the same designers raises the corridor theme once again. The principal subject of this project is rebuilding and restoration, and from this it differs from the other works. The window and railing details are exaggeratedly decorative. The reed mats used in the openings, the irregular and polygonal broken ceramics of the floor, the wavy elements of the glass-walled main façade, the Art-Nouveau-like railings and the slender, tall columns of the principal hall — though they are repeated several places, like the corridor flooring — do not in fact form a good fit and connection with one another.
House no. 3, the work of Mehrdad Iravanian, in the writer's view, falls within the realm of conceptual art and escapes any aesthetic evaluation. The house resembles a work of art in which each part has been formed in relation to a meaning and a narrative independent of the issues and nature of the project itself. Disharmony and the violation of aesthetics are the project's subject. The work is wholly experimental and contains internal contradictions, the most disturbing of which is the conventional plan on which the building stands. Space is not perceived as an integrated whole. The project is composed of various spatial and artistic episodes and elements that are juxtaposed in a strange way. The work oscillates between sloppiness and a craftsman-like obsession; this very contradiction — also reflected in the composition of unrelated, finished and raw, elements — forms the principal feature of the building.