Extended Cabin

Tehran, Iran

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Extended Cabin

Tehran, Iran

Firm

2x2 Architecture Studio

Type

Cultural › Hall/Theater

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2025

SIZE

0 sqft - 1000 sqft

BUDGET

Unknown

Extended Cabin

How can architecture become performative and emerge as a protagonist of the theatrical stage?

"Extended Cabin" explores this question through a mobile architectural structure derived from the spatial and formal logic of a metro cabin. Rather than functioning as a static stage set or a representation of architectural space, the cabin becomes an active element of the performance,one that is continuously opened, moved, extended, and transformed by the performers.

The project begins with the idea of the architectural section not as a fixed representation, but as an event in itself. A continuous longitudinal cut opens the body of the cabin and establishes a direct relationship between its interior, the performers, and the audience. By removing the cabin floor, its enclosed volume is extended onto the stage, gradually dissolving the distinction between the interior of the cabin and the theatrical space. The stage itself becomes the floor of the architecture.

Constructed from a steel framework clad in reflective stainless-steel sheets, the cabin is equipped with integrated wheels that allow the structure to move freely across the stage. Its reflective skin continuously captures and distorts the stage lighting, performers, and surrounding space, causing the architectural object to change visually as it moves. At the beginning of the performance, the cabin takes shape through forces generated from within. As the performers push, pull, move, and extend the structure, the initially compact cabin becomes an evolving spatial apparatus.

In this process, architecture is no longer a container for performance or a passive backdrop to the theatrical narrative. It becomes part of the performance itself. "Extended Cabin" transforms the stage into a continuously changing spatial condition, exploring the dualities of movement and stillness, interior and exterior, compression and release. Rather than representing a section, the project performs the act of becoming one.