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Architects: Hooba Design
- Area: 1230 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Parham Taghioff
Key Project Details - Darya Building is one of the millions of Infield buildings located in Tehran, which must adhere to top-down regulations for its design. In recent years, Tehran, like many other cities in Iran, has experienced a surge in urban construction, primarily focusing on medium-scale buildings within the urban fabric. Apartment buildings have become clustered among each other, often only receiving light from one side. In this project, the façade is designed as a green and light-enhancing surface, achieved by creating a double-skinned façade. An inner layer, made from glazed materials related to the void spaces, reflects copper-colored light into the interior spaces, transforming the project's façade into a green wall. In this project, the idea of green spaces, windows, and interior spaces are integrated to create a unified structure aimed at improving both indoor and outdoor spaces.
The project's spatial formation draws from two main concepts: "void" and "mass," each combined with the project's materiality. The ultimate goal is to create a replicable pattern for this type of residential apartment that can contribute to enhancing the quality of life in urban apartments and endow the project's spatial elements with a sense of sustainability. The structure created on the exterior façade forms a cohesive whole through elements with a subtle form to maintain clarity in interpreting the project.
The project's materiality was formed based on two elements: Glazed brick for the void section, enhancing light reflection, and providing a unique lighting experience within the voids. Recycled stone with a grainy texture representing the project's residential volumes. This organizational approach can maximize air circulation and light within the apartments, allowing semi-open spaces to play a more significant role in the daily life of urban apartment buildings.
How Does it showcase Innovation? One of the main goals of this project was to add spatial quality to the forgotten spaces in residential apartments and to create an open-air corridor inside the building to provide natural ventilation as well as a pleasing visual scenery between the semi-open spaces of the building (balconies, staircase, and the interior void). Reevaluating the top-down City regulations and achieving a duplicable typology was another aim of this project. Defining the façade as the layer enclosing the greenspaces, windows, light penetration, as well as the interior needs of the residents was one of the aims of this project, which was achieved by thickening the façade shell. The façade is now a cluster of different activities which not only enhance the quality of the interior spaces but also control the amount of south sunlight penetration through the layer of vegetation on this layer.
In this project, the building materials are a part of the design strategy:
- Recycled stone from mines around Tehran, forming the solid volume of the building.
- Copper-colored glazed bricks, defining semi-open spaces and reflecting light and shadow
Both of these materials help to define the spatial quality of the project.
How is It Beneficial? In this project, it was tried to create a new infield building typology that enhances natural ventilation in closed and semi-open spaces of the apartments and significantly decreases cooling energy consumption. Creating usable semi-open spaces in small-scale residential typologies is essential in enhancing the living quality of such buildings. In this project, the aim was to create a prototype with the ability to reproduce in different projects around the city. The material palette in this project was formed around the idea of making use of recycled stones from the mines around Tehran. Recycled stones in a variety of shapes and sizes were used in this project. The surface of the voids, on the other hand, is covered with traditionally made glazed bricks, made in electric furnaces, to promote the use of traditional and more sustainable methods in the production of building materials. The reflective characteristic of the copper-glazed bricks significantly enhances the quality of the spaces in these voids.
