Olfat House

Olfat House Architect: Naghsh-e-Firouzeh Design Group Location: Tehran, Iran Date: 2014 Area: 260 sqm Status: Completed Client: Mohammad Hossein Salehi Surmaghi, Fariba Nosrati Designer: Navid Salehi Design Associate: Mohsen Golkar Structure: Navid Salehi Mechanical Consultant: Hamid Samimi Electrical Consultant: Ahmad Rajabi Construction: Hossein Ghaffari Execution of Metal Elements: Javad Darvish Calligraphy: Majid Gharezadeh Photo: Pedram Jafarbeygi, Navid Salehi The experience of the revitalization and restoration of “Olfat House” has given a social & physical life to a building belonged to the modern architectural, but forgotten era of Iran that unfortunately nowadays most of its residential houses are being demolished and turned into new apartments & skyscrapers. This building is already being used as two separated residential stories and an architectural atelier (Naghsh-e-Firouzeh). The new owners, after years of living in apartment, decided to experience a quiet life away from nowadays unrest multi-unit buildings. So, they decided to buy an old villa (over 60 years old) in eastern part of Zahiroddoleh cemetery (northern region of Tehran). In this regard, the primary aim of the designers was to provide a “comfort home” instead of just a “place to live”. In other word, they tried to increase the life qualities for the today users in the old structure. The owners also insisted on maximum use of the spaces and preserving the main structure in case of an extension. The restoration process last 11 months, during 3 phases, including: reinforcing the structure and changing the internal spaces, adding new elements to the southern façade, and organizing the yard & related space. Phase 1: Setting up a steel column matrix matches with the older columns and the new interior walls; Then, the heavy roofs were to be peeled off & lightened because they were covered with a new layer after every phase of extension in the past.