Deadline extended! The 14th Architizer A+Awards celebrates architecture's new era of craft. Apply for publication online and in print by submitting your projects before the Extended Entry Deadline on February 27th!
Cedrus Studio is a Tehran-based architecture firm that focuses primarily on residential projects. Their work highlights the inextricable link between design and construction, resulting in thoughtful and high-quality architecture. The homes designed by Cedrus are rooted in their context and showcase a sensible attention to local culture and traditions while meeting the needs of contemporary living.
In Iran, where Cedrus operates, mud brick has traditionally been used as a building material. This choice makes sense, considering that the region is mainly earth, sand, and rock. Not only is brick construction a building tradition, but it also offers environmental benefits, including high thermal mass and durability. Structurally, brick performs best in compression, making it an ideal material for vault, dome, arch and load-bearing wall construction without the need for additional reinforcement.
A House Looking to a Cedrus Tree by Cedrus Studio, Vineh, Iran | Popular Choice Winner, Architecture +Brick, 13th Architizer A+Awards
A House Looking to a Cedrus Tree by Cedrus Studio, Vineh, Iran | Popular Choice Winner, Architecture +Brick, 13th Architizer A+Awards
This tradition has stood the test of time, and to this day, brick construction retains its popular appeal. Contemporary brick construction is often combined with other building techniques and materials such as steel and concrete. Rather than diminishing brick’s strengths, these new construction approaches enhance its capabilities while adapting to contemporary structural requirements. Cedrus Studio’s A House Looking to a Cedrus Tree, located in the Iranian village of Vine, epitomizes this modern approach.
The house is the result of a renovation project on a site of around 12,378 square feet (1,150 square meters), featuring a fifty-year-old unfinished building. Cedrus Studio transformed it into the new home for a family with two daughters and their spouses. The natural landscape, including a nearby river and a majestic Cedrus tree on the property, guided the design, creating forms that evoke the vegetation and the movement of water and wind.
While the house is modern, it stays true to traditional Persian architecture, where proportions and geometry are central elements. The north side of the house, facing the mountain, is rigid and rectilinear, while the south side, overlooking the river, is fluid.
A House Looking to a Cedrus Tree by Cedrus Studio, Vineh, Iran | Popular Choice Winner, Architecture +Brick, 13th Architizer A+Awards
Conceptual Diagrams for the brick and shutters’ design: A House Looking to a Cedrus Tree by Cedrus Studio, Vineh, Iran | Popular Choice Winner, Architecture +Brick, 13th Architizer A+Awards
Handmade brick is the predominant material on both the exterior and the interior, creating a sense of comfort and warmth. Even though there is no trace of traditional Iranian architecture in the area, the use of brick acknowledges the strong connection between material, place and culture in the region.
The powerful presence of the Cedrus tree on the property influenced the house design, both spatially and aesthetically. Spatially, it anchors the house to the site and enlivens the construction in various ways: through shadows cast on a staircase, a silhouette through an archway, and its physical presence in the courtyard. It is also a symbolic element, expressing the passage of time, nature, and resilience. Aesthetically, the scales of the Cedrus cone inspired the design of the brickwork and metal shutters.
A House Looking to a Cedrus Tree by Cedrus Studio, Vineh, Iran | Popular Choice Winner, Architecture +Brick, 13th Architizer A+Awards
Renovation Sequence Diagram: A House Looking to a Cedrus Tree by Cedrus Studio, Vineh, Iran | Popular Choice Winner, Architecture +Brick, 13th Architizer A+Awards
The renovation of the existing unfinished building presented various challenges. It involved reinforcing the bearing-wall structure to ensure stability. The ceiling height on the lower level was insufficient, requiring the lowering of the foundation by 90 centimeters (35 inches) along with the consequent extension of the columns.
Moreover, the overall building height could not be increased per local building regulations. After the removal of unnecessary elements, including the gable roof, the various openings were created at different levels to improve the connection between floors, enhance the sense of spaciousness, and open the interior to the exterior. The upper openings were then covered with steel-reinforced vaulted structures: one located below the existing roof ridge and the other above what would become the living room on the top floor.
A House Looking to a Cedrus Tree by Cedrus Studio, Vineh, Iran | Popular Choice Winner, Architecture +Brick, 13th Architizer A+Awards
Exploded axonometric: A House Looking to a Cedrus Tree by Cedrus Studio, Vineh, Iran | Popular Choice Winner, Architecture +Brick, 13th Architizer A+Awards
The vaulted elements integrate existing and new construction, while capitalizing on the aesthetic richness of brick construction. To meet modern structural requirements, the brick vaults are steel-reinforced. This design honors the traditional Persian craftsmanship of brickwork to create a variety of forms, ranging from simple barrel vaults to diaphragm arches and domes.
These forms, which spanned large spaces in homes and mosques, were self-supporting and ornamental at the same time. The patterns, including radial, herringbone, and corbelled, among others, were adapted to the material’s limitations to create, nonetheless, spectacular spaces.
Exploded axonometric: A House Looking to a Cedrus Tree by Cedrus Studio, Vineh, Iran | Popular Choice Winner, Architecture +Brick, 13th Architizer A+Awards
The pool’s shape replicates the geometry of the house’s front elevation, resembling a reflection in water. The distinctive shape is also reiterated throughout the house interiors at different scales, giving form to architectural and interior design features such as the staircase void, the fireplace, and the wall niches. This abstraction of the house’s front can be viewed as a two-dimensional graphic element, similar to a logo, which gives the architecture a unique identity.
The project’s achievement lies not in revival, but in translation. By treating Persian vaulting as a live construction system rather than a historical reference, Cedrus Studio demonstrates how architectural knowledge can be carried forward through making.
Deadline extended! The 14th Architizer A+Awards celebrates architecture's new era of craft. Apply for publication online and in print by submitting your projects before the Extended Entry Deadline on February 27th!
