Building 1345, MohammadMehdi Zakerhaghighi

Project Name: Building 1345, Iran Building of the Year, 2021, Finalist / Function: Office-Commercial / Company: BAO Atelier / Lead Architect: Mohammadmehdi Zakerhaghighi / Design Team: Shima Maasoumi, Pouriya Salehi, Saleh Soltaninezhad, Hediye Rohani / Interior Design: BAO Atelier / Executive Engineer: Sasan Shapourinia / Client: Mostafa Bakhshaee, Peyman Morattab / Structural Engineer: Mohammad Satteri / Mechanical Installations Engineer: Seyed Ali Abdollahzadeh / Location: 25 Alley, Mirzaye Shirazi Blvd. / Total Land Area: 249m2 / Area of Construction: 1700m2 / Date: Winter 2021
Photographer: Deed Studio (www.deedstudio.com)
Email: Thebao.pa@gmail.com
Instagram: @bao.pa

Built on 1700 square meters of a construction site, 1345 is an office building with seven stories in total. Five levels function as office spaces, while the other two are mainly serving as commercial units.The site with a four-sided polygon form is on a threshold between the remaining Ghasr-Dasht gardens of Shiraz from one side and the dense urban blocks in Mali-Abad street from the other side. The main challenge was suggesting a mass that firstly fits the form of its site and responds formally to the adjacent ones. And secondly, to function as a connector between the dense urban blocks and the glorious nature of the gardens.As an approach, the two parallel concepts developed as follow:
First, the total constructible mass got split into two solid blocks. Each block got then aligned with its dominant adjacent site border. As a result, an empty space is formed in between, providing extra natural light and ventilation in favor of the two formed blocks.
Second, each block got a corresponding and yet contrastive material in a way that they would communicate most with their dominant side. In this case, the gardens and the neighboring blocks. The use of glass on the side of the gardens was to visually blend the building with the greenery and the sky and make it look as light as possible. The reflection and pellucidity properties of the glass got optimized by the manufacturer meeting our needs. In contrast, the other block got materialized in hand-made bricks. It represents the density of the urban construction on the other side of the site. Both materials have highly improved the performance of the building in terms of energy efficiency and sustainability, however!The selective integration of four materials only has been of importance in this project. One could see the extension of these materials and the main lines running from outside to inside and vice versa. It has brought the building unity and a transparent character. This transparency in design language, material, and form could perhaps reflect the sense of honesty inside the visitors.