Khark Multipurpose Center

The Khark Multipurpose Center is a renovation and adaptive reuse project in District 11 of Tehran that received 3rd Place in the Renovation category at the 23rd Memar Award with 3 points. Designed by Persian Garden Studio under Mahsa Majidi, the complex has a total built area of 1,018 m² on a 286 m² site.

The compound stands on the northern side of Vahdat Hall on Khark Street and comprises three residential floors in the northern building, a garage in the southern building, and a courtyard between the two. It is a valuable structure from the second Pahlavi era that was once the home of Alireza Afzalipour, founder of the University of Kerman, and his wife Fakhereh Saba, the celebrated opera singer. The building's exceptional position within the Roudaki Cultural Zone prompted the design approach to go beyond mere preservation, connecting the project as an urban node to the broader revitalization plan for the district.

To establish a visual relationship between the public and the building, the openings of the southern building were transformed into transparent enclosures. The site of the original pool was reconceived as a void executed in glass, emphasizing visual connectivity between the project's different layers. The three-story northern building was preserved through eleven piles driven to thirteen meters, strip foundations, and shotcrete reinforcement. Direct public access to the rooftop from the basement via elevator — bypassing private sections entirely — marks the culmination of the spatial experience.