Collaborative team: Mohsen MARIZAD, Ahmad Bathaei
This proposal was a study in methods of creating visual transparencies through spatial and structural configuration rather than through more obvious methods such as the use of transparent materials. The strategy was to tactically create a hierarchy of spaces progressing from external exposure to a more concealed interior.
As urban spaces are intrinsically open and exposed, while buildings are intuitively more visually obscure, the hierarchy of transparent spaces was created through weaving the urban context with the building courtyard, outlining an urban plaza. Urban terraces were defined on the upper floors by a series of setbacks enveloped within an integrative looping sheath, connecting the urban plaza to the urban terraces. An inspirational precedent would be the unique relationship between the AliQapu Palace and the Naqshe-Jahan Plaza in Isfahan.