Karaj City Theater Hall, Saeid Haghir, Hamed Kamelnia

Project Name: Karaj City Theater Hall / Function: Public-Cultural / Constructor: Karaj Municipality / Consulting Company: Vice-Chancellor of Research Affairs, University of Tehran / Lead Architect: Saeed Haghir / Design Team: Saeed Haghir, Hamed Kamelnia, Mahsa Masalegoo, Leila Tashakori, Ehsan Qoflsaz, AmirMohammad Motavaselian, Alireza Salmanzadeh Yazdi / Project Manager: Saeed Haghir / Supervisory Team: Saeed Haghir, Mahsa Masalegoo, Leila Tashakori / Head of Architecture: Hamed Kamelnia / Architectural Design Partners: Nadia Rahimi, Somayeh Jahanpanah, Negar Monesan / Interior Design and Architecture: Saeed Haghir, Hamed Kamelnia / Head of BIM: Hamidreza Darvishi / BIM Partners: Maryam Tavakoli, Mehdi Razavi, Vahid Hosseini / Mechanical Installations Engineer: Amir Ali Akbarnejad / Electrical Installations and General Lighting Engineer: Farshad Shakibi / Head of Audio, Video, Specialized Lighting and Machinery: Omid Khausteh / Structural Engineer: Ali Karami / Structure: Concrete / Civil Engineer: Amir Taheri / Acoustic Engineer: Orod Anzabipour / Traffic Engineer: Farhad Karimani / Head of Bidding: Hadi Esfahani / Partner of Bidding: Ashkan Akhteh / Client: Karaj Municipality / Location: Land behind Tajikistan Park, Balal Blvd, Karaj, Iran / Total Land Area-Area of Construction: 25000m²-7413m2
Website: www.hkamelnia.ir
Instagram: @hamedkamelnia

Karaj city theater hall project -with an area 25000 m² and 7413 m² of built area- was organized through a limited architectural competition by the Parks Organization of Karaj Municipality judged by the jury, Iraj Kalantari, Mohammad Beheshti and the RIP Farhad Ahmadi. This project was started by assigned a contract between the won team and Karaj Municipality. Finally, our team started to prepare the design phases of this project including: Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documents, Bidding.The project site is located in Karaj, the center of Alborz province, which in terms of urban identity, was considered a green and pleasant place around the Tehran. In fact, the city of Karaj, despite its high population and adequate infrastructure, unfortunately lacks an independent urban identity. Therefore, the main question is that what is the concept of a cultural building in order to make an identity for a city? Hence, the project’s idea should be considered not just as a single building but beyond it and as an urban project. Karaj has been famous for many years for its suitable climate and having numerous private and public gardens. Therefore, the main concept of project is in coordination with the context and revitalization of the gardens of the city that were excessively which were destroyed during over-construction by now; on the other hand, the site of the project is an area surrounded by old gardens and is along the public linear park in the city center. The project was built as a theater-garden to the extent of re-identifying the city, and play significant role as an urban element in combination with the context. Theater’s building envelope associates with the city and its gardens; Thus, by using the green slope of building, the city will become a scene of theater for spectators from inside the site, and the building will become an extending natural scenery of the surrounding gardens for citizens.The building is designed on three levels: Negative level 1: (Decor rooms, facilities) Ground floor (main theater hall, two black boxes, cafes and main hall and rooms) First floor (balcony of the main theatre, children’s theater and gallery). The most important challenge in this large-scale project is the coordination of the design concept, structure and acoustic requirements to meet the needs of sustainable theater for the city and its future, which was achieved by designing the project in a BIM format.