Bornami home (Borna & Nami), Parastoo Malmir

Project Name: Bornami home (Borna & Nami)
Function: Residential
Office: Parastoo Malmir
Lead Architect: Parastoo Malmir
Design Team: Aida Semsar, Soheil BaBA Hosseini, Amin Nayeri
Interior Design: Parastoo Malmir
Client: Amin Shokoohi Nia
Executive Engineer: Amin Mobin, Sasan Darab
Lighting: Parastoo Malmir
Mechanical Installations Engineer: Pedram Azkaei
Mechanical Structure: Pedram Azkaei
Structural Engineer: Amin Mobin
Structure: Metal Structure
Location: NO 02, Dead End Hamid, Jebheh Avenue, Elahieh Street
Total Land Area: 320 m2
Area of Construction: 400 m2
Date: FEB 2019-APR 2020
Photographer: DEED Studio
Email: pr.malmir@gmail.com
Instagram: parastoomalmir

I met the Bornami client through another project of mine back in 2017. He wanted to renovate a house for his wife and children so that it may be reminiscent of a paternal home throughout the years growing up. A couple of months later, he found the spot on no. 2, Lessani Street, in Hamid dead-end alley. It was a 60-year-old house built by a Belgian architect. The building received light on three sides and was located on a steep slope within a wooded site.
One can accurately call the Bornami Project a collage of the client›s demands – a project that is an amalgam of semantic elements and structural components implemented on the exhausted body of a sixty-year-old building.
The formation of the paternal house as a place with the theme of structural growth within a circle of security and peace, synthesizing the joviality of spaces in a trilogy of coziness and spatial simplicity along with fluidity, is the turning point of the given project.
The Bornami House is located on a sloped land, with no flat surface for a yard due to its conservative approach. The short ceilings of the 60-year-old building limit the potential for ambitious pursuits when it comes to designing. The creativity infused within the surface making and building the four balconies inspired by Iranian architecture (Sassanid Era) have been incorporated to make up for the site›s restrictions. The fluidity of space and the smooth and constant visual access to public spaces (first and second floors) have resonated the borderless principle of the interior as well as the exterior. The macro formation of the body in a monochrome style represents the peace dominating the space, enlivened by the visual dynamism and the outer greenery synthesis. This important point could not have been made possible without regard to the technical aspects such as strengthening and expanding the structure for the creation of the required space. Securing the spaces such as balconies, staircases, etc. according to project specifications has contributed to the tranquility needed in a paternal house.
The client›s demands as well as the site›s specifications were set as the bases for our concept›s design. Building courtyards on different levels facilitates mankind›s interaction with nature within spaces and also enables the access to natural light. The former structure included a building with utilities and a parking lot, the ground floor with an entrance as well as two separate rooms leading to the sloped courtyard, the first floor with the living room and a difference of level with the kitchen and its short ceiling, next to an indoor pool in the backyard, the second floor including three small bedrooms with a shared bathroom, and a drawing room with little windows overlooking the balcony. The structure and utilities of the building were old, therefore we invited structural and utilities engineers to assess the project, and afterwards, we decided on strengthening and expanding some parts of the structure according to the design. The old utilities were also removed and built anew. The principal issue with this phase was the low height of the floors, necessitating proper measures in the design of utilities. So as to create green yards on all floors to provide better living conditions for the family especially the children, we decided to move the indoor pool on the first floor which was problematic in terms of utilities to the front yard, and a green yard with a water feature and a lounge on a stone bench were built. A mobile roof was designed for this yard so that it may be of use in all seasons of the year. The second floor›s balcony was also turned into a green-clad yard after strengthening and expanding the structure toward the one on the first floor.