10th Memar Award: Jury Report
The End of a Decade — Soheila Beski
The ceremony for the tenth anniversary of the Memar Award brought to a final point a decade of the award. This was literally a final point, because if the Award is to be continued, it can no longer be done like the past ten years. The selection of five jurors, all of whom are successful architects practicing outside of Iran, was a nice ending to this ten-year long experience.
Changes announced for future editions: (1) The Award will include three categories — Residential, Public, and Restoration/Rehabilitation. (2) Projects not winning in past editions may resubmit. (3) Juries will combine Iranian and international members. (4) The 100-second film requirement is replaced by a detailed questionnaire. (5) Total prize money: 450,000,000 Rials. (6) Only semifinalists, finalists, and winners will be published in Memar Magazine.
10th Memar Award — Kamran Afshar Naderi
The tenth edition offered an opportunity to evaluate a decade of contemporary Iranian architecture. The results confirmed the founding ideals of the Memar Award: the influential role of the younger generation in Iranian architectural culture, the importance of transparency and independence in judging, and the impact of competitions in elevating the country's architecture.
Kamran Afshar Naderi identified key trends among the best submissions: clear and simple volumetric expression; reduced quality gaps between Tehran and other cities; innovative use of traditional and modern materials; advancement in construction quality and detailing; coherence between architectural elements; less unnecessary ornamentation; attention to movable building parts in creating space; priority of spatial over volumetric expression; expressive use of materials, colors, and textures; attention to natural and artificial lighting; focus on sustainability; attention to interior-exterior relationships; and attempts to connect with architectural traditions through invention and reinterpretation.
Report: Memar Award 2010 — Sanam Kalantari
The call for entries was published in Issue 61 (June 2010). Jury members: Hadi Tehrani (BRT, Hamburg), Nader Tehrani (Office dA, MIT), Gisue and Mojgan Hariri (Hariri & Hariri, New York), and Nasrin Seraji (Fine Arts Academy Vienna, Paris School of Architecture).
Submission deadline: October 12. Total submissions: 144 (2 eliminated for incomplete documentation). 93 residential and 49 public projects. 6 restoration/rehabilitation projects and 24 interior renovations were categorized by function. Residential: 55 small/single-family, 24 mid-sized, 14 large. Public: 15 offices, 7 educational, 4 museums/cultural centers, 4 commercial, 4 factories, 3 restaurants, plus research center, dental office, hotel, sports club, gas station, bank, airport, metro station, and religious center.
Geographic distribution of designers: 80 from Tehran, 24 Isfahan, 10 Mashhad, 4 Karaj, 3 each from Qom/Shiraz/Tabriz, and others. Projects showed even greater variety across 25+ cities.
Jury sessions: Saturday-Sunday, October 16-17. Through two elimination rounds, 80 residential and 39 public projects were removed. Semifinalists: 13 residential, 10 public. Finalists: 6 residential, 4 public. Honoured: 2 residential, 3 public. Winners: 1st through 3rd in each category.
Residential Winners
1st Place: Ramin Mehdizadeh — Residential Apartment No. 1, Mahallat (Memar Award medal + 100M Rials)
2nd Place: Ehsan Hosseini & Elham Geramizadeh — Bidabad House, Isfahan (30M Rials)
3rd Place: Reza Najafian & Reza Mafakher — Apartment No. 17, Tehran (20M Rials)
Public Winners
1st Place: Ali Sodagaran & Nazanin Kazerounian — Aqua Structures Museum, Shiraz (Memar Award medal + 100M Rials)
2nd Place: Lida Almasian & Shahin Heydari — Self-Service Restaurant, Sistan & Baluchestan University (30M Rials)
3rd Place: Farrokh Zanoozi, Nariman Pirasteh & Mohammad Arab — Conversion of a Ruined House to Bavand Office, Isfahan (20M Rials)
Ceremony: Friday, October 22 at Abgineh Hall, Foreign Ministry Club. Sponsor: Superpipe International (Mehrdad Yousefi, CEO).