Archinect - News

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...

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."

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.

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.