The recently formed town of Sadra, Iran, is gradually evolving into a megacity as a result of its geographical location and architectural potential. To improve the cultural standards of the town, several cultural centers were constructed, transforming the area into a major hub for people of all ages.
Keeping in mind that a newly built town requires an adaptable space for potential expansions, NextOffice - Alireza Taghaboni architecture studio created the “Sadra Civic Center”, a town within a town built from its surrounding urban elements.
While designing the Sadra Civic Center, the architects studied the possibilities of “constructively disengaging with the familiar monumental clichés while preserving the iconic feature and effectiveness of public spaces”.
The 26,965 sqm civic center consists of semi-open and adaptable spaces, forming free-flowing channels of communal spaces for gatherings and activities, and shaded areas to protect from the striking desert sunlight. The design of the structures and communal spaces follow the ones that stood before them, built with clay and straw, and surrounded courtyards. Smaller structures have the ability of gradually transforming into larger ones, due to retractable and mobile structural elements, which provide additional social spaces to the residential units.
The civic center is built with rammed earth, so that the material would be extracted from the same place the project was being built on. Form work is created following the intended shape of the structures’ designs, and natural clay is filled and compressed inside molds. Finally, continuous grading and parallel construction of cross-walls help create a consistent structural system. Construction and execution of the project are divided into separate intervals, making its feasibility and funding possible over time.
Team: Alireza Taghaboni with Maziar Ghaseminia (+Project Manager), Fatemeh Tabatabaeian, Homa Asadi, Peyman Nozari, Majid Jahangiri, Sepideh Sarafzadeh, Sajad hosseini, Ebrahim Roostaee, Mohamad Motamedinia, Pouyan Bizeh, Asal Karami, Roza bemani, Mohammad Kahidi, Kaveh Chehri, Navid Ghafouri
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