Alizadeh House (Koohbor), Manouchehr Azizi

Project Name: Alizadeh House (koohbor) / Client: Javad Abrishami Kashani / Architect: Mehdi Alizadeh / Chief Engineer: Manouchehr Azizi / Consultant: Art Consulting Engineers Group / Interior Design & Renovator: Mohamad Hossein Nia, Babak Shafiei / Mechanical Installations Engineer: Mohamad Reza Khakpour / Electrical Installations Engineer: Behnam Chehri / Structural Engineer: Homan Kiani / Location: Golnar St. #68, Elahieh, Tehran / Total Land Area: 692 square meters / Area of Construction: 986 square meters / Construction Year: 1977-78, Renovation: 2010
Photographer: Shahriar Khanizad (Instagram: @shahriar.khanizad)

The Koohbor House was built in 1971-1973 on a site with an area of 692 square meters by mehdi alizade one of the well known contemporary iranian architects. This building has six floors, five residential units, and a studio for the employer, which forms a total built area of 986 square meters. According to Mehdi Alizadeh, the initial concept of this house is based on traditional and historical Iranian buildings in which several families would live together. While each family had a separate and independent life, their living spaces were not separate since all together would form a coherent whole. Hence, the Koohbor House, which name is changed to Alizadeh House after the national registration, includes five residential apartments. As each of the apartments has all the necessities of independent living spaces, these spaces aren’t separate like today’s apartments. In fact they form social interactions between the inhabitants of the building. In designing this building, the architect tried to reconcile modern architectural ideas with traditional concepts. Initially, it was the slope of the land that determined the design of the prototype. Three parallel walls built along the slope, created diverse, separate, and independent spaces. Internal connections of the spaces, indoor courtyards, and open courtyards, evoke the Iranian atmosphere in its true sense. One of the things that Mehdi Alizadeh had to pay a lot of attention to was solving the issue of independent facilities and equipment for each unit, which has been carefully carried out in this project. The current owner of this property, Mr. Ali Abrishami Kashani, in renovating the building, did his best not to change the original design. He even ordered windows that were perfectly matched to the original model to replace wooden doors and windows that had been damaged over time. The building used to be used as a gallery and coffee shop but after the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s been converted to an office space.