Designing in Teheran | Andrea Menardo

Contemporary fashion in the place that was once the hearth of human civilization, the Middle East. What does it mean? Where do we have to look at?
Maybe the answer is: look back to see forward, go to the roots of fashion itself, to the ancient craft of clothing. And there it comes: the dyers souks, the very place where it all begins, big pools of dyes, some empty some full, on many different levels, creating games with light and shade, the perfect background for the real protagonists, The Colors – indigo, green, larkspur, madder.
This our starting point for `Designing in Teheran`. We focus on building site A and where others can see the sharp corner on Vali Asr as an obstacle there we see an opportunity. The opportunity for high visibility on what is probably the most prominent boulevard in Teheran. We play games on the façade with light and shade and colors. The boxes, built with the local pink brick, are not only a game but absolve a specific function too: the southeastern side, more subject to direct sunlight, requires a shading device and we do so by providing perforated bricked extrusions with different depths. The composition looks modern but is nothing more than a respectful interpretation of vernacular materials and shapes – look at the medinas and souks from the sky and how the neat square buildings draw net lines with light and shade.

Along Vali Asr, behind the wonderful natural curtain of the tall sycamore trees, we don’t try to be prominent and visible, we go instead to the other extreme and try to disappear by creating a second row of trees, in light grey concrete matching the sycamore trunks, with a light green glass façade which forms a `veranda` or enclosed balcony for the main office floors.
For the bottom two floors of retail we don’t do any effort with the façades: we believe they should be like white canvas for a painter, where the real star is the Benetton brand and the mannequins wearing the latest collection. But the simple fully glazed facade absolves also the function of standing out from the crowd, from the traditional commercial streets around the site dominated by chaotic signage and apparent absence of order.

Where we remind the traditional customs in retail is in the reinterpretation of the bazaar: we penetrate the sharp site corner and create a street and a central courtyard, leading to …. square at the back. On one side this solution doubles up the quantity of shopping windows and offers the opportunity for a wider showcase for Benetton. On another side the central plaza and the whole perimeter of the retail floors sets back from the perimeter of the office floors: this device creates a comfortable sheltered environment enjoyable with all weather conditions. We aim for this to become a sort of pleasant meeting point in this area of the city and we remark the idea of comfort and enjoyable shopping experience by introducing elements of landscaping, like water features and fountains, key elements in Arabic architecture and surely in Teheran, like the peculiar channels (or joobs) where the sycamores grow.

The eastern side of the site, adjacent to an existing building, is used for vertical access to all upper floors and for building services distribution. A cavity is in fact built between the two buildings where all services run vertically and distribute to all floors. The cavity provides also ventilation and natural cooling through a traditional Persian method: a series of wind catchers (or Bâdgir) on the roof captures fresh air and distributes it down. In the basement a mismatch of pressure is created with underground water channels (or Qanat) and the exhaust air is pushed back to the top.

The main offices floors aim to represent at full the corporate business: fashion and colors in a modern, open yet flexible and inspiring office space. The device that makes it possible is the Wardrobe Wall (or Rolling Stilista).
Vaguely reminiscent of cloths on hangers in a wardrobe when packed on one side, these partition panels clad in recycled clothes can slide along rails in the ceiling and can be moved and locked into infinite configurations, creating meeting rooms, private offices, showrooms and else.
It is a tactile experience that perfectly links office workers and business people to the very soul of the brand – the fabrics with their textures, thickness, roughness or smoothness.
The fabrics used can be fun and coloured on one side or more serious monochrome on the other side, adapting to a series of work circumstances from design brainstormings to formal meetings to exhibitions. The panels consist of standard plywood boards mounted on a light aluminium frame filled with acoustic insulation. On top of this the acoustic performance is improved by the random array of fabric pieces which obstacles sounds reverberation in the rooms. The visual design of these panels can be easily changed, if wished, from season to season or according to special marketing campaigns. It is a one of a kind office experience that we hope is perfectly in tune with the Benetton brand.