Worker's (Temporary) House

The Worker's (Temporary) House is a small-scale public building in Shiraz that received 1st Place in the Public Buildings category at the 23rd Memar Award with 10 points, with three of five jurors giving it first place. Designed by Farshid Roozitalab and Mohammad Hasan Tajik of Shid Architects, the approximately 30 m² structure was built using salvaged materials on a construction site to provide temporary housing for workers.

The Worker's House is neither an ideal place, nor an occasional building, nor an effort toward standardization. It is not precise in its finishing, and has essentially abandoned the fastidious eye and the desire for fine craftsmanship. It is an emergency encounter with the formation of space that sets to work with its own method and aesthetics. Given the temporary nature of the project, secondhand materials were used — bricks salvaged from the demolition of a nearby dilapidated building, cement board, metal profiles, glass, and polycarbonate.

The principal concern of the project is to point toward unconventional typologies and propose fresh thematic categorizations within the field of contemporary architecture. It simultaneously opens a window for establishing ethical considerations between employer and worker, emphasizing the importance of living conditions for the inhabitants of a project under construction. A lightweight roof attached to the volumes creates a unified condition with a semi-open space in their midst. The Worker's House is not merely a building; it is a purposeful encounter with everyday matters and a message to remember things that are constantly before our eyes yet perpetually being forgotten.