Archinect - News

Several museum expansions and design research projects among National Endowment for the Humanities grant recipients

2023-04-25T13:34:00-04:00

The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced the awarding of $35.63 million in grants for 258 humanities projects across the United States. As with previous years, the 2023 edition of the grants includes funding for several architecture-related projects, including buildings and research.

Architectural projects to be funded include the William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, which will undergo a schematic design process for an expansion and renovation to its Rockland, Maine center. Meanwhile, the Shelburne Museum in Vermont will use the funding to design and construct a new Perry Center for Native American Art on its campus.

The Shelburne Museum, Vermont. Image credit: Flickr user Tolka Rover licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has received funding for preparatory architectural works for the renovation of a new Research & Learning Center at the Eckley Miners’ Village Museum in Weatherly, Pennsylvania, while the National Orn...

US Pentagon: Iranian cultural sites will not be bombed

2020-01-07T12:50:00-05:00

The United States Pentagon is working to distance itself from a series of statements made US President Donald Trump threatening to target Iranian cultural sites were military conflict to break out between the two nations.

According to The Associated Press, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the US will “follow the laws of armed conflict” in the event of military conflict with Iran, adding that when asked to clarify whether the department's plan explicitly rules out targeting cultural sites, Esper added, “That’s the laws of armed conflict.”

The threats initially made by the president were widely received as indications that the United States was willing to perpetuate war crimes against the country's cultural heritage, in violation of the Geneva Convention Protocol that prohibits acts of hostility against these types of sites. The statements drew comparisons around the globe to acts of cultural terrorism enacted by the Taliban against the Bamyan Buddahs, in Afghanistan, for example, a...

A look at some of the Iranian cultural sites that Trump could be threatening

2020-01-06T15:22:00-05:00

Tensions in the Middle East keep escalating after the U.S. President followed his drone assassination of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani with a tweet that publicly threatens to strike dozens of target sites in Iran, including "important" cultural sites, if the country dared to retaliate.

"Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD," threatens one passage of Trump's vague January 4th Twitter post which, as lawyer and specialist in historic preservation, Sara C. Bronin, pointed out in the Los Angeles Times, "amounts to an announcement of an intention to commit war crimes."

Ruins of the Tachara at Persepolis, one of Iran's most important UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Photo: Wikimedia Commons u...

US sanctions against Iran could negatively impact EU engineering and construction firms

2018-05-10T20:24:00-04:00

Much is at stake for US and European companies enjoying revived trade with Iran following US President Donald Trump’s decision this week to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal and impose fresh sanctions. Hardest hit will be oil and gas firms, plane makers like Airbus and Boeing, and car makers. But European engineering and construction firms, recruited in the last two years to help Iran develop its transport infrastructure, could lose out as well.

US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal and impose new sanctions will drastically impact European engineering and construction firms and could restrict the availability of international finance for big schemes.

After the nuclear deal was signed, Iran launched immense transit programs spending around $25 billion. Vinci and Ferrovie dello Stato have signed deals in Iran’s expanding rail and aviation sectors.

No minarets? No dome? Tehran's modern mosque draws the ire of conservatives

2017-10-24T15:48:00-04:00

But the Vali-e-Asr mosque, designed by the Iranian architects Reza Daneshmir and Catherine Spiridonoff, is stirring controversy in a country that hosts some of the world’s most glittering places of worship. Iranian hardliners are refusing to recognise it as a mosque, complaining that it does not have a minaret or proper dome, and that it is dwarfed by the theatre. [...] The conservative Mashregh News said: [...] It was “an insulting, postmodern design” that is “empty of any meaning”, it said.

Designed by Iranian Fluid Motion Architects and nearly 10 years in the making, the modern appearance of the almost completed Vali-e-Asr mosque in Tehran is facing harsh opposition from Iran's conservative establishment.

"The Vali-e-Asr mosque doesn’t have a minaret, nor a dome; neither did the first mosque," the design architects Reza Daneshmir and Catherine Spiridonoff tell the Guardian. "A mosque is a place for worship, and the Qur’an doesn’t dictate a special structure for it. It’s what it contains that is important."

The Iranian American community to gift sculpture by Cecil Balmond to the City of Los Angeles

2017-08-23T14:17:00-04:00

Southern California boasts the largest concentration of Iranians in the world outside Iran, and the county of Los Angeles houses the vast majority. The Fahrang Foundation—a non-religious, non-political, and not-for-profit foundation with a mission to celebrate and promote Iranian art and culture—plans to honor the Iranian community while thanking the City of Los Angeles with a gifted sculpture that will stand at the intersection of Santa Monica Blvd. and Century Park East.

Courtesy of Balmond Studio.

The Freedom Sculpture, as it will be called, has been crowdfunded by over one million people and will serve as the gateway to Beverly Hills where the Iranian community makes up 20% of the population. It has been designed by the Sri Lankan-British designer and engineer Cecil Balmond whom has worked with everyone from Rem Koolhaas to Toyo Ito to Anish Kapoor. The design takes its inspiration from the Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient clay artifact dating back to 539 BCE that is considered the fi...

Hossein Amanat, the architect of Tehran's iconic Azadi Tower, reflects on religion and architecture in Iran

2017-08-15T15:29:00-04:00

In 1966, a 24-year-old architect who had just graduated from Tehran University hesitantly entered a competition to design a monument to mark the 2,500-year celebration of the founding of the Persian empire. [...] The architect, Hossein Amanat, had no idea that his hastily prepared design, which went on to win the competition, would one day become a focal point of the Iranian capital’s skyline, serving as a backdrop to some of the country’s most turbulent political events.

The Azadi tower, he said, was an opportunity to “design modern architecture using old language, to preserve the good things about a culture, leave aside the meaningless parts and create something new and meaningful”.

The landmark Plasco Building in Tehran burns to the ground, claiming the lives of at least 20

2017-01-20T12:56:00-05:00

The Plasco Building, a landmark structure in Tehran, burned to the ground yesterday, claiming the lives of at least 20 firefighters. An additional 70 people were injured, 23 of them seriously, according to a report by the BBC. The fire began on the ninth floor and, by the time many firefighters had entered the building, caused the north wall to collapse, which quickly brought down the rest of the building. While the exact cause of the blaze is still unknown, apparently managers had expressed worries about safety issues in the past.

The Plasco Building was once the tallest in the city and contained a shopping center and clothing workshops. It was built by the Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian who was executed following the 1979 Islamic Revolution after being accused and convicted of spying for Israel.

Iran purposefully building "sexy" structures to attract media attention

2016-12-13T13:55:00-05:00

In this eye-candy survey of Iran's newest architectural projects and prevailing trends, Architectural Digest takes a closer look at how the country's architects and architecture is shifting to not only attract more media attention, but to create a new visual identity:

"Right now, the massive trend in Iran is to design and build structures with the goal of being recognized by the media,” says Hooman Koliji, associate professor of architecture, planning, and preservation at the University of Maryland. “Therefore, there is an implicit effort and competition to create forms that look different and, dare I say, sexy.” This approach to modern architecture has garnered great results for Iranian talents such as Leila Araghian, whose design of Tehran’s Tabiat Pedestrian Bridge took home the prestigious 2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, bestowed every three years. Certain elements of Araghian’s bold, modern design incorporate motifs of Iranian architecture dating back centuries. With its c...

Meet Hossein Amanat, the architect who designed Iran's most famous monument

2016-01-14T15:31:00-05:00

For 45 years, Iran's most famous modern monument, the Azadi (Freedom) Tower in Tehran, has been the backdrop to every major news story coming out of the country...Hossein Amanat was a rising star in Iran's architectural scene when, in 1966, he won a national competition to design the monument...Its historical pull, he believes, lies in the tower's evolution as a 'symbol of Iran'...that is both intensely Iranian and Islamic at the same time.

Amid historic nuclear negotiations, Tehran's urbanism is shifting

2015-05-11T13:58:00-04:00

If ongoing discussions with the United States and others prove successful, sanctions affecting the Iranian economy will likely be lifted, exposing the country to a forceful wave of globalization. But the shift from isolation to inclusion has already begun to transform Tehran. [...] It’s a city that, at this moment, is intensely influenced by international relations, shaping itself into a burgeoning urban hub.

The young Iranian architects who designed Tehran's new popular bridge

2015-04-21T13:30:00-04:00

Leila Araghian was 26 when she came up with Tabiat bridge. Five years on, the 270-metre structure is a reality, despite sanctions, garnering awards and paving the way for a new, more avant garde generation of Iranian designers.

Correction: Leila Araghian informed us that, contrary to the Guardian's depiction, the bridge design was a joint effort and commissioned to Diba Tensile Architecture, the company Araghian co-manages. The design team for Tabiat bridge was comprised of Leila Araghian, Alireza Behzadi, and Sahar Yâsaei.

Khamenei's fight against "un-Islamic" architecture in Iran

2014-12-11T13:33:00-05:00

For centuries, the spatial layout of house design in Iran reflected the patriarchal structure of the society through the rigid segregation between the andaruni and biruni, private and public space. [...] Modern architecture is also considered erotic because, unlike the spatially introverted pre-modern architecture of Iran, it faces outward with windows that shamelessly offer strangers a peek at the buildings’ private parts.

Beauty and Symmetry Collide in Stunning Photographs of Mosque Architecture

2014-08-15T14:14:00-04:00

Mohammad Reza Domiri Ganji [...] is capturing truly stunning photographs of the colorful, architecturally gorgeous interiors of historical Mosques throughout the Middle East. [...] Using wide angle lenses, fisheye lenses and panoramic photography techniques he has traveled to some of the most historically significant mosques in and around his home country of Iran to capture the kaleidoscope-like architecture inside.

Ganji's work gives some faith back in the beauty of our profession.

Pioneers of modern architecture in Iran

2013-12-02T11:29:00-05:00

"Born in 1907, as the son of the famous political man, statesman and man of letters Moḥammad Ali Foroughi, Mohsen Foroughi is one of the pioneer of modern architecture in Iran. an influential professor of architecture at the University of Tehran, and a noted collector of Persian art. He was imprisoned in 1979 after the revolution."

Mahdi Shadkar

Court OKs Forfeiture Of New York Building With Ties To Iran

2013-09-17T20:35:00-04:00

A decision by a federal judge paves the way for the forfeiture of a 36-story Manhattan building that the U.S. alleges is secretly owned and controlled by the government of Iran. The court agreed with the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York that the owners are a front for the Iranian government and therefore in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which restricts commerce with Iran.

Territory Jam: Tehran

2012-07-09T15:51:00-04:00

Revolutionary guards who are denied entry to an apartment have been known to scale a building’s walls with grappling hooks to dismantle receivers. It may seem like something out of a spy novel, but this cat-and-mouse game tells the deeper story of a complex exchange between the Islamic Republic and citizens of Tehran. In the absence of legitimate public space for discourse or demonstration, the satellite receiver opens a space for political dissent and cultural protest.

In contemporary Tehran, where the city's parks and plazas have been delegitimized by censorship and surveillance, the true public realm is inside the home. On Places, architect Rudabeh Pakravan examines the spatial politics of satellite television in Iran, with a close look at "the satellite man" as an agent of change.

Iran ‘smart concrete’ to protect N-sites from US bunker busters

2012-03-20T12:23:00-04:00

Unlike conventional concrete, Iranian concrete is mixed with quartz powder and special fibers - transforming it into high performance concrete that can withstand higher pressure with increased rigidity. Due to its combination, the new Iranian-made concrete is an excellent building material with peaceful applications like the construction of safer bridges, dams, tunnels, increasing the strength of sewage pipes, and even absorbing pollution.