When our friend sent us the initial design of his house for consultation, we quickly realized that answering the question “Is it good or not?” could not be done with a few generic phrases. A 120-square-meter plot—narrow, elongated, trapezoidal—located at the northwest corner of a three-way intersection… such a situation required more than an opinion; it demanded a new design altogether.
And this is how “The Friend’s House” began.
From the very beginning, a series of questions shaped our approach:
How can one create a pleasant architectural living experience for a family of five in a small city with limited amenities?
How can the spirit of traditional Iranian courtyards—through open and semi-open spaces—be revived for the children of this home?
How can southern and eastern light be brought deep into the plan to enrich the spatial experience with warmth, variety, and life?
And above all, how can coherent architectural relationships be formed within a plot that is narrow, elongated, and geometrically unconventional?
Alongside all this stood the recurring challenge: creating meaningful architecture in a context lacking strong identity, relying on local builders and available resources.
From the outset, the client’s trust played a fundamental role in our decisions. The first and most significant move was to place an open staircase at the center of the plan—an unfamiliar strategy in that city and one that sparked reactions. But we believed the heart of the house should literally be its center, organizing the eastern and western spaces around it.
We then introduced a vertical void to expand visual connections between floors, and through a skylight, we pulled a fragment of the sky into the interior. The brick lattice on the southern façade not only filtered the sunlight but also infused the staircase and void with a dynamic play of light and shadow, intensifying the spatial depth and character.
Additionally, the legal allowance to build 100 percent of the ground-floor footprint—given the size and shape of the plot—offered us a crucial opportunity. It enabled the creation of a private upper-level courtyard adjacent to the kitchen, significantly improving the quality of daily life. To echo the residential patterns of the region, two additional courtyards were designed on the rooftop, providing usable open spaces at higher levels as well.
In the spatial organization, the ground floor was allocated to parking and a guest suite; on the first floor, the living room and kitchen were placed to the east of the stair, and the reception area to the west. The second floor includes three bedrooms—two for the children and one for the parents—shaping the private realm of the home.
One of the key challenges was designing the façade. In a city where travertine stone and classical “Roman” styles dominate the streetscape, we sought a different approach. A combination of brick, stone, turquoise ceramic tiles, planter boxes, and larger-than-usual windows formed a façade that could offer a renewed architectural presence—one that avoids imitation while subtly recalling the identity of the city itself.
For us, The Friend’s House was not just a response to a small and difficult plot; it was an attempt to show that architecture—even under strict limitations—can create quality, enrich relationships, and transform the everyday life of a family. This project emerged from an ongoing dialogue between the client’s aspirations, the constraints of the site, and our responsibilities as architects—ultimately resulting in a home that not only meets the family’s current needs but can continue to offer a warm, intimate, and enduring living experience in the years ahead.
