Presence in Hormuz 2

Presence in Hormuz 2, also known as the Majara resort, is a cultural resort on Hormuz Island developed by the private sector following an invitation from local art groups who had been performing the Soil Carpet event at the site for years. Part of the Presence in Hormuz initiative begun in 2015, it applies urban acupuncture — stimulating small points in the city that connect over time to initiate a flow of change and dialogue becoming the voice of the island's people. The project pursues social optimization through multiple paths: affordable construction benefiting the client, allocating a greater construction budget share to local labor over expensive materials, creating resilient spatial scenarios for unforeseen needs, using Iranian and accessible materials to reduce transport costs, and enabling middle-class tourist entry instead of those who do not spend in the host community. Built as a collection of earthen domes using Nader Khalili's superadobe method, the project was broken down into fine-grained elements at human scale rather than a large monolithic volume, enabling the island's small-scale trades to participate in construction. The colorful granules of soil, sand, and stone that shaped the island's salt dome inspired the design — sand dredged from the Hormuz pier fills rows of sandbags forming dome-shaped granules, as if the earth swelled to create living space. These dome granules link in a molecular, organic, and flexible structure as small communities with indeterminate boundaries that can expand as needed. Presence in Hormuz 2 won Second Place in the Public Buildings category at the 20th Memar Award (2020).