In United Colors of Benetton’s “Designing in Tehran” competition, designers were challenged to compose a mixed-use commercial and office space that would establish Benetton’s brand as a unique and contemporary contributor to Tehran’s rich and complex urban fabric.
In contemplating the elements of the urban day-to-day life in Tehran, we found our inspiration for this project: the veil of the Islamic woman, a garment which connects the city’s past and present and exists as one of the most iconic and complex representations of Islamic culture. In our design we spoke to this complexity, using a semitransparent shell to negotiate relationships between public and private space.
This shell screens the more vulnerable parts of our structure from harsh sunlight and unwanted public focus, establishes an intimacy within the structure, and injects a sense of playful mystery into the building, preventing an immediate understanding of the building’s structure until one has fully experienced the space. Though the southern side of the building is shielded by this membrane, the northern side faces an intimate inner garden. This juxtaposition of shrouded and exposed space provides a diverse pedestrian environment and explores the relationship between an inhabitant’s expectations and resulting experiences of the space.
