Oudlajan is one of the 5 oldest neighborhoods of Tehran, and some parts of it dates back to the Safavi period. Today it has 3 parts: the eastern, Emamzadeh Yahya, the middle, Pamenar, and the western, Naser Khosrow. Oudlajan has been until some decades ago, the rich neighborhood of Tehran due to its vicinity to the Bazaar and the Royal Arg, but today only a few of those houses have remained, and the rest is in ruins. Some of these houses have been restored.
In recent plan for the landscape design of Oudlajan, we indicated in a list all the valuable historical houses that could be regenerated together with the whole urban fabric. We also introduced all the solutions with which the regeneration could be facilitated.
Here we present 3 of these houses that have been restored, as examples of what could be done in future.
The Kazemi house is near to the famous Imamzadeh Yahya, and is 200 years old. The municipality of Tehran bought and restored it (not to the perfection) during the last years, and recently it has become a mixed administrative and cultural public space for the neighborhood.
The Mehraban House is a 530 square meters house in a 900 sq.m. lot of land, with 2 yards, one in the back that is connected to the Andarooni, and one in the front, for the receptions in the Birooni. The interesting architectural element is a covered terrace [Mahtaabi] in the northern aisle. The house has all the characteristics and decorations of a traditional Tehrani house. Today the northern yard is used as a restaurant called Mowlana, but the southern part is abandoned.
The Nassiroddowleh House is in eastern Oudlajan, built in a 2400 lot in the time of Nassereddin Shah by Asefoddowleh. It is one of the most intact buildings that has remained from the Qajar period. Unfortunately this grand house is in ruins today. It has all the precious characteristics of Tehrani Qajar houses that have a special style to them that can be called the Tehrani Style.
* Sohrab Soroushiani graduated from School of Fine Arts of the Tehran University in 1990, has been a founding member of “Architecture of Changing Times” which has published 3 books on contemporary architecture in Iran. He is now responsible for the studies for urban design for the Udlajan neighbourhood in Bavand Consulting Engineers.
* Negar Mansouri, born in 1982, Master degree in restoration and rehabilitation of historical sites and monuments from Tehran University. She has been collaborating with Bavand Consulting Engineers since 2008.
