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Architects: Negin Shahr Ayandeh
- Area: 2500 m²
- Year: 2014
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Photographs:Deed Studio, Hamoon Moghadam
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Lead Architects: Ali Naghavi Namini
Text description provided by the architects. Mehrshahr could be considered as the only survivor of urban garden fabrics of Karaj city periphery, but this district has not been protected from the damages of dense urban developments. However, Mehrshahr is still considered as one of the highest quality urban fabrics of Karaj due to the existence of gardens and green networks as well as lack of constructions. The main problem of this neighborhood is the rapid development and the increasing human density in emerging apartment buildings as well as changes in urban spaces.
With this introduction, housing quality improvements of medium-density residential apartments are delineated as the most important question of the project, and general and detailed ideas are proposed to respond to this issue by architectural solutions. Therefore, it has been attempted to improve the quality and the quantity of spaces, versus masses, in public and private realms by studying the project’s context as well as combination and balance between mass and building space. Also, a better response to various social, cultural, and economic needs of residents is provided by a variety of housing patterns and structures.
So, regarding to have response to environmental and socio-economical situation of Mehrshahr in present and future, this project proposing a prototype for city’s peripheral development. Apartment 210, with 11 residential units and the total area of 2500 square meters has been constructed on a land of 1000 square meters in the second phase of Mehrshahr district in Karaj city, Iran. Unit areas vary from two-bedroom 115 square meters flat to three-bedroom 210 square meters duplex in a 5-storey building. One of the most important features of residential spaces in Mehrshahr, is the significance of open and green spaces. The relation of residential spaces with yard and garden is immediate and spending time in open spaces is of a high importance in everyday life. In spite of density, building spaces have organized from the interaction of open and closed spaces in public and private realms.
The staircase, the vertical access of the building, turned to an excuse to develop the vertical public open space. The presence of vase flowers, small gardens, shrubs, and plants on the edges of this vertical promenade has created green terraces and receding courtyards so that it can secure the relationship between the apartments – even those on the higher stories – with the public open space. The introverted identity of this space along with its brick walls has elements from natural outdoor settlements and by creating a slice in the building, the façade has been divided to a mixture of the two introverted public open space and extroverted private apartments. With the increasing development process in urban construction and mass production, meeting the diverse needs of residents is one of the major challenges in the planning and the design of such apartments. A variety of patterns and residential spaces in response to residents' social diversity are considered as one of the most important ideas of the project. So, the whole complex comprised of eleven unique apartment units was formed.