The project is located at Municipality district 7 in the central areas of Tehran,Iran. It was situated in site with the area of 312 sqm with a width of 11 meter next to the ”MOSALLA of Tehran”, the Great Place for Public Prayers of Tehran, at No. 23, 6th alley, Ghanbarzadeh St., Tehran.
When the employer began discussions about the project with the architectural group in May 2015, he intended to have a building designed with details as follows: a seven-storey building with steel structure consisting of one underground floor for parking lots, storerooms, boiler room; the ground floor allocated to parking lots; as well as five other floors with one apartment of 165 sqm in area and with three bedrooms on each floor, creating a total built area of 1365 m2 with an external view in compliance with necessary standards to improve qualities of living spaces, allocating a limited budget and accelerating the project to sell the apartments as soon as possible.
At first we embarked on designing plans taking into consideration the preset steel structure, which was in process of construction, and protection of the access box and heights of floors. Next, because of the budget allocated by the employer, we planned split units as chilling facilities and private packages of heating systems for independent use of every apartment.
Finally, as the considered building is blocked on three sides and the building can use the sun light only from the south side, and as the employer decided to sell the apartments at soonest possible time, not only we were to pay attention to the planning and spatial relationships, but also to create a distinguished beautiful external view.
With a glance at the invaluable Iranian architecture, we presented the design with objectives as follows:
To use traditional patterns to create an architecture consistent with needs of the today’s community; to pay attention to simplicity and homogeneity with the surrounding texture; to use functional elements of Iranian architecture, such as “SHABAK” and “OROSI” to adjust light and to create privacy at home; and to pay attention to appropriate outside views from inside.
After summing up of the above, the design was made with three steps: (1) To allow light to go to the apartments; (2) To create privacy; and (3) To create appropriate outside views from inside. Therefore, a transparent module and a latticed module were used on every floor to adjust the rate of light penetration into the apartments. On the other hand we considered penetration rate of sunlight into the apartments, adjusted light, created shades, and diversified internal areas by using aluminum latticed plates together with a texture cut by CNC to reduce sunlight during the day and to create pleasant varied spaces for inhabitants with adjustments of shades.
Finally, we paid attention to the ramps existing in the courtyard to access the ground and underground floors as parking lots and, as there was no sufficient green space, we tried to increase the per capita green space. Therefore, we decided to distribute flower boxes on floors not only to provide the least green space but also to create a relatively nice space in accordance with the urban texture. Therefore, we tried to bring back some part of the external finishing in order to create a place for a small tree to provide the apartments with green spaces. This contributed to create a nicer view for passers-by, on one hand, and to provide the inhabitants with the green space created in their own homes.