mixed-use building

teheran, iran

Type: Competition

Year: 2009

Team:
Dicle Roberts

Program:
Retail / Office / Residential

How do you design a project that stands on the intersection of east and west, modernity and tradition, that seeks to express a global identity while molded by code constraints, FAR regulations and local canons?

Working within the constraints of the zoning envelope we went through different iterations until we stopped at a massing reminiscent of Iranian vernacular architecture. This was an offset truncated cone. The cone was sliced to achieve the desired footprint and FAR. This create two triangular piazzas on the corners of the site and six arched facades on the cone. These facades were then carved out to provide for storefronts, parking garage access, a sky lobby for the offices and a grand entry way for the retail spaces.

The massing was given a basic striated skin in the modern tradition of louvers for solar control. Looking into traditional brick layouts we derived additional patterns for the different facades.

By quarrying local vernacular architecture and by deploying modern design strategies we arrived at a building that today can be a nexus for different ideas and activities much as were the caravanserai of the Middle East in their time.

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