Do-Pahloo : Kashan University Gateway

Do-Pahloo is an elongated volume with two semicircular ends and a central connection. Rather than emphasizing a single opening or a frontal facade, it establishes a spatially articulated boundary between the city and the university. Unlike a conventional wall or gateway, this boundary does not simply divide. Through depth and inward turns, it accommodates space within itself. 

Within this envelope, spaces emerge that are not merely the leftover areas surrounding an entrance. Courtyards, passages, and enclosed spaces each form part of an architectural system whose identity extends beyond the act of entering and leaving.

photo_credit swapoffice
swapoffice

The building can therefore be read in two distinct ways: from the outside, as a continuous brick volume; and from within, as a varied composition of spaces and elements gradually revealed through movement.

photo_credit swapoffice
swapoffice

Alongside the main body, an independent volume with a different geometry and materiality accommodates the university's security office. Instead of occupying the threshold of the entrance, this element is relocated inside the campus, adjacent to the main volume.

photo_credit swapoffice
swapoffice
photo_credit swapoffice
swapoffice
photo_credit swapoffice
swapoffice
photo_credit swapoffice
swapoffice

Its supervisory function remains intact, while its position within the spatial composition changes. Security is thus maintained without allowing the entrance as a whole to be defined around its presence.

Caption
Caption
Caption
Share or Add Do-Pahloo to your Collections