Apartment No. 2

Apartment No. 2 Architect: Shaar Office (Ahmad Ghodsimanesh) Location: Shiraz, Iran Date: 2014 Area: 1750 sqm Status: Completed Client: Sara Jahandarpour Design Team: Ahmad Ghodsimanesh, Nasim Khalesi, Maryam Nazemolboka Construction Team: Ahmad Ghodsimanesh, Mohammadreza Khorshidi, Reza Ghodsimanesh The client, having utterly the other perception of an architectural project, beside the under supply of the budget, referred the project to us. Thereupon some approaches were taken to recast the weaknesses of the project as the strengths. The project is located in Kholdebarin quarter, in which all the blocks are oriented to the west. Unaccustomed to the existing urban pattern and skyline, the dictated orientation was to the north. This resulted many downsides: firstly, throwing the uniformity of the existing building into chaos, secondarily, a noticeable part of each flat would be deprived from the direct sunlight. The orientation for one thing and the four meter setback regarding future street widening, for the other, prevented us from taking the dictated direction. Of other challenges was the exterior façade to the street; If we were to spot it merely as a two-dimensional surface, it would lay such an impractical stress on the building, rendering it as a massive body. It would then, for sure, not only eliminating the interpretation of the residence from it, but also weighing too much in the adjacency of the harmonic rhythm of the neighbors. The pedestrian, either living in our building or one of the neighbors, was addressed by devising some strategies, namely the variety of materials, the lighting design and the green spaces, all decided to be specifically humanized, to participate one passing by in every single step he take.