showdow complex | Mobin Bahadorani

(This building is an attempt in pursuit of "home" in the framed urban architecture today. )

​This is a six floor building designed in a 260 m2 land, consisting of 8 residential units in Azimieh, Karaj, Iran. The first and second floors include two units each approximately 90 m2. The third and fourth, each is an about 200 m2 unit. While it was being constructed, one less wide floor was added to have now a 1400 m2 building all together.

​The defining characteristic of the apartments’ interior design is the upgraded role of corridor from a mere access path to a primary independent space through having light availability in its both sides, establishing different micro-spaces, limiting installation channels, and changing mode with color in its floor and ceiling.This spinal space not only improves ventilation and natural airflow but also guarantees the independence of the connected spaces to the corridor. An exterior path_balcony joins all interior spaces together. 

​There were two significant factors in the façade design, one the mountain and the city views in two different sides, the other the main west façade of the building exposed to the extreme sunlight. Therefore, the façade moved from a merely “visual” experience to a space which requires a “bodily" experience. It is now a dynamic space where the residents are able to move in it and find themselves in different positions. The positions are those once experienced in a yard, for example, being under the shade of a tree, sitting next to water, hanging out the washing, keeping pets, spreading kitchen accessories such as rice, pickles, potatoes, and so on. These positions are attached together by a green space all around the building in which even vegetables are planted in some boxes. The rooms all have access to this linear yard.  

​Thrown-away and pruned branches were gathered, dried in kilns, thermo-processed, and woven in the prepared structures in the façade. All these branches were woven from the inside without scaffolding in order to be readily checked or replaced in future. These branches create a haven for the residents now. Preventing the intense sunshine, they let them use different spaces. 

​Attached to the earth, the added profiled structure does not impose a burden on the building. Moreover, it creates a shaded green path defining an urban walking course. The green space around the building is watered in a micro irrigation system, and excess water goes to the garden below through a network of tubes. ​As for lighting, the building is not illuminated as a statue; rather those places in the façade which have interior uses are lit. 

Started to be built in 2011 and finished in 2014, this building is the pursuit of "home" in the framed urban architecture today.