Humanity's inclination toward nature and life in large, polluted cities like Tehran calls people to seek tranquility in mountainous suburbs. The Mosha Plain is located north of Tehran on the slopes of the Alborz Mountains.
The project site sits on a steep mountain slope, where a breathtaking landscape accompanied by a sense of freedom and suspension inspired the design.
We first studied the typology of villas in the region on similar terrain. Where buildings stretch across the width of the land, occupying most of the plot with the remainder devoted to stairs connecting different levels, the existing typology has overlooked the site's potential and offers nothing more than urban apartment living. We sought to dissolve the boundaries between human and nature — something akin to the unity of inside and outside, evoking sensations of the pleasure of suspension and freedom in the suspended space of the building's interior and exterior amid the mountains.
Creating three cubic volumes along the longitudinal axis of the site, with their instantaneous rotation around a central staircase, was all that was needed to respond to the project's requirements and create a new structure. Three cube-shaped volumes blend together around a large shaft — a wooden staircase — and social interactions take shape along it.
Harnessing the mountain landscape led us to use floor-to-ceiling windows and divide the panoramic view ahead into three different frames across three floors. These are more than windows — they are living (dynamic) canvases around which we shaped life's activities, merging the building's interior and exterior. Beside the first canvas, where you watch the sunrise from between the mountains, you exercise, swim, and play. Beside the next, from sunrise to sunset, where the dance of light and shadow with the building's simple volumes shares life's bustle with you, you socialize. And finally, in the highest and most tranquil part of the villa, beside the final canvas adorned with the mountain's outline and its stars, you fall asleep counting the stars. The seasons pass.