1st Place: White Gallery, Tehran
Location: Mahmoudieh, Tir Street, Espandar Street, West Khordad Street, No. 22 · Client: Farid Akhavi · Project Manager: Nazanin Javaheri · Presentation and Graphic Associates: Naghmeh Asadbeigi, Mahta Aminali, Mohammad Hasan Tavangar, Amir Fallahi · Physical Model Associates: Shervin Daneshi, Momen Faghihi · Construction Manager: [SHIFT] Process Practice · Construction Associate: Homayoun Homavandi · Steel Works Engineering: Hesamodin Raoufpanah · Structural Consultant: Pedram Mosahebi Mohammadi (Sarvin Structural Consultants) · Mechanical Consultant: Soleiman Hadi, Reza Naziri · Electrical Consultant: Vahid Ghasemi, Reza Naziri · Smart Systems Consultant: Hooshmand Ava Co. · Photography: [SHIFT] Process Practice, Ali Daghigh · Area: 165 m2 · Total Built Area: 726 m2
White Gallery is an exercise in rereading the potentials and limitations of the "infill" typology for the function of an art gallery.
The deliberate distinction between the nature of spatial organization and the formal articulation of the project's interior and exterior is an emphasis on the inherent complexities of reconciling the duality of typology and function.
The project is simultaneously introverted and extroverted: on the inside, the spatial organization has been formed around the core idea of maximum extension in section. This continuous spatial system extends outward through the hollow space in the project's cross-section. The section-oriented and fluid space enables the emergence of diverse perspectival views of the interior spaces.
From the outside and at first glance, the project's formal structure is a rigid composition of discrete Euclidean volumes, harmonious with the dense residential fabric surrounding it. Like "cabinets of curiosities" — which can be considered the ancestors of museums and art galleries — White Gallery, as a space for display, is replete with ambiguities that cannot be grasped without entering the interior as a space that has been revealed.