In 2020, Ahmadreza Schricker (ASA North) completed the Argo Contemporary Art Museum & Cultural Center design. Previously a 1920s beer distillery in the heart of Tehran, it has now been converted into a contemporary art center and is now the new home of the Pejman Foundation. ASA North is a studio based in Tehran that was chosen by ArchDaily as part of the 2023 New Practices. ArchDaily selects those practicing within the broadest definition of architecture and its exercise to share their innovative, fresh, and forward-thinking mission with the community. In the summer of 2023, the foundation hosted an exhibition featuring selected works from ASA North while documenting the transformation of the Argo Factory. The exhibition explored the studio’s practice, developing a commentary on their projects and their self-awareness.
Choosing not to adorn the white cube’s walls with drawings, images, or collages, the studio strategically places four circular mirrors within the exhibition's main gallery. In fact, these mirrors offer a subtle commentary on the self-awareness inherent in such endeavors. The mirrors were meticulously crafted and designed in an enlarged Flemish brick pattern, reflecting the original brick walls of the factory. When combined with cylindrical platforms, they encourage visitors to reflect on the museum’s origins and the body of work created by the office within the museum’s main gallery. The choice of circular geometry creates a needed contrast between the architectural project and the architectural exhibition in this context.
The exhibition is a narrative that has been created by a group of 100 contributors, weaving together different viewpoints, desires, and a unifying theme of transforming the outdated into something fresh. Instead of just highlighting the physical structure, the goal is to draw attention to the wide range of people from various countries and continents who were instrumental in its conception and the outstanding local team of engineers, advisors, builders, and artisans who made this vision a reality.
Named "Remembrance of Things Present," this traveling exhibition takes place at the Argo Contemporary Art Museum and Cultural Center and shines a spotlight on ASA's extensive portfolio, encompassing a wide range of interdisciplinary projects, from virtual architecture to exhibitions, private residences, urban master plans, adaptive reuse initiatives, and focused efforts in research undertaken by ASA North's research teams in the South, East, and West regions.
So much of architecture is the celebration of the finished product. With this exhibition, we hope to pull the curtain back and make transparent the process, false starts, dead ends, and happy accidents not typically seen by the public.—Ahmadreza Schricker
The adaptive reuse devised by ASA North for this former beer distally actually won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture as one of the six winners for the 2019-2022 Cycle. After the opening of the Cultural Center, the firm produced another exhibition, “For the Sake of Calmness.”, showcasing a different side to their practice. Curated in collaboration with its sister studio, ASA South, the exhibition focused on a film by renowned Iranian photographer Neshwa Tavakolian.
