The 13th Sense وtraditional Iranian residential architecture holds a warm atmosphere with interior and exterior spaces which include personal and public space shared between the household.

Today, what is left from these significant designs are just our ancestor’s narrations or the albums of old memories.

It comprised a detailed architecture that allocated space for all the private and public requirements of residents.

The design provides the comfort and coziness for residents while offering the pleasure to guests.

The “13th Sense” project focuses on this traditional architectural concept and its effects on the intimate relationship of people. It represents the old-style Iranian houses with a modern appearance.

The project is a 183 m2 apartment on the third level of a building located at the 13th Street of Yousef-Abad, Tehran. The building is constructed using concrete and it uses a thermal radiator and water-cooling systems as utility installations. The interior renovation started October 2014 and was completed by May 2015, duration of 8 months. The design considers the traditional culture of the residences who are determined to live in a modern household while holding into their past traditions.

One of the main elements of traditional Iranian residential architecture is satisfying the essential necessity of an individual and their communication within and outside of the household whilst reducing the need to reach outside in need of a specific space. The design focuses on this traditional division of visually differentiating the intimate and outsider areas as emphasized by the client. Additionally, in a world where residential soundproof walls no longer have a clear definition, this design provides a new limit to sound transparency. Therefore, the physical fragment of the project consists of different spaces from private (interaction with one’s self), semi-private (interaction with persons of the household), semi-public (interaction with friends and neighbors), and public (interaction with people outside of the household).

The heart of the design is the entrance where the residents face the dividing wall. This area reminds of “Hashti” concept – an Iranian traditional sitting area and entryway that separates the inside and outside space.

The design purpose The 13th Sense is to create a beneficial yet face the users with two different spaces. The border between the private and public areas is shaped by a wall extended from the ceiling into a bench. The purpose of this sitting area is for short relaxation time-outs and perhaps small conversations between neighbors. This is the space where the individual faces the decision to which path he or she might take between the private and public sectors of the household.

Repeatedly consuming the traditional private and public space concept, architecture is used to create an area semi-public while intimate with a fireplace at its focus known as “korsi”. In traditional Iranian culture, gathering areas within the household were extremely significant and part of every family residence. For example, “korsi” is a traditional item of furniture in Iranian culture that is a low heated table that gathers around family and friends in an intimate sitting space and a possibility of affectionate conversations. With a modern presentation of this ideology, the designer renews “korsi” giving it a place and purpose in the 21st century.

Furthermore, another practice taken from the traditional architecture is the design of the kitchen. In the past, the kitchen known as “matbakh” was located in a room outside of the house, where it would hold the outdoor and the dirtiness during the food preparations. The designer has renewed the idea of “matbakh” into an inner modern kitchen while giving a current-day appearance. Therefore, the kitchen of this household consists of an inner kitchen where the food is prepared and an open kitchen where the entire household is able to use it regularly.

In a smaller scale, to unify the theme, a strong connection is modeled between the architecture and the furniture. This follows the template of either an extension from the ceiling or the adjacent wall. The design creates the sense of mobility as the architecture walks along with the individual within the household. In conclusion, it not only creates a diverse taste of living, it also conceptualizes the goal.

In the first steps of the design process of Niavaran Residential Tower, the main solid mass was modeled as a cube with the four faces covered by concrete material. In the next step, in order to fulfill the necessary infrastructure for the functional requirements, Niavaran Residential Tower the surface is fragmented based on modular patterns. Thus, these splits create open spaces that form terraces directing natural light into the inner space.

A non-modular facade representing the complete uniformity of the building and highlights the pure mass.

Bank Residential Complex : Human and environment relations: “Life” is the main concept of this project. This means that among the solid walls of the building there is a coexistence between people and urban animals. Penetrating through the vertical gaps which start from north facade of the building, illustrating a green and active life in different levels. The interaction between people and animals take place on bridges, open spaces and also east and west facades which push this green life inside.

There are places for birds to be feed, kids play together and with animals, older people gather and greet. These roofed yards are for private use of residents, and there is also an open courtyard in the south. This idea is the same as vernacular introverted houses of ancient Iran in which all the passion inside is concealed.

Landscaping on a roof: in this residential complex with the main idea of “Life opportunities for everyone” the vegetation are dragged from empty spaces into the apartments. green gardens which are places every three floors move towards the roof to transform into a great green roof garden. This roof garden is a desirable place with a wide view from northern mountains to the other parts of the city.

Natural ventilation: improvising the holes in staircases with different directions leads to wind suction through the unroofed corridors among the units and facilitate the wind blowing and ventilation. Green walls in 40 cm distance at both sides of these holes decrease the air temperature while passing and make it more desirable for residents.

Entrance: entrance space is pushed back and up to protect the northwestern existent trees. The other pushed back parts are designed to facilitate the access of commercial spaces and its legibility.

Bank Residential Complex with the area of 5000 m2 is located in western districts of Tehran, Ashrafi Esfahani street. Built-up area is about 21021 m2 and the overall density is 420%. There are three underground floors which consist of caretaker’s room, sports complex, central heating and 386 parking lots.

The ground floor includes a hypermarket, stores, conference hall and residential lobby. Finally, the last ten floors have a residential function with 190 units. The covered area of the ground floor and upper ones are 60%+2m.

There are many other advantages to this project such as daylight. A twofold vertical lighting gap which divided the whole building into three parts, make the light penetration possible to reach central units -dark rooms in central units is one of the several residential blocks problems- In order to apply the current regulations building is designed not to block the neighbors’ daylight. Therefore, at the east side, it has been pushed back for 3 meters wherever there is a neighbor’s yard. Every resident passes a bridge while walking through his home to get the optimum level of daylight. Actually, this bridge is replaced by a small lobby that connects several units and usually causes privacy problems. Bridges make more private territory for each unit plus more specific spatial sense.

Considering every five units as a neighborhood, each neighborhood has an access to a staircase and a lift with a half level difference in height. Arranging the units based on their area, bigger units with more valuable prices are located at south and north sides to have more daylight, ventilation and even desirable views. The location of the project leads to design an economical building. Designing four symmetric concrete cores around the staircases, symmetric structure system, using brick and cement as facade material make the whole project economical.

Apartment No.17 : Architecture is not just the result of forms, materials, and methods, it’s rather about the feeling and impression of the structure of the people and it turns into a lasting memory for them. The main idea behind the design for Apartment no. 17 is this. So the main lines forming the new design which is the result of the transformation of 45-degree lines prior to reconstruction. These new lines intend to create a different kind of atmosphere for life. The producers have tried to realize this goal with the aid of geometry, the cohesion of all the details and elements of architecture, and high-quality materials and equipment which are all important and integral parts of a great design. These features result in the creation of a cohesive ensemble of lines in the design of body shells, ceilings, and floors. Now, these lines spread out in the space, break and form new shapes wherever required. The old 45-degree lines that are now transformed into modern fraction-ed lines start from the floor and flow on around the shell of the structure and help create the fireplace and other fixed elements of architecture. They then continue to join the shell lines and go further up in the structure and finally reunite with bright fraction-ed lines in the ceiling.

Plan to move lines moving architectural elements in Apartment No.17 created during the whole atmosphere and eventually found alive and vibrant atmosphere created has resulted. The different life experience that space as the main employer demands for him has brought.