Lumen, Alireza Taghaboni

Project Name: Lumen
Function: Residential Buildings
Office: Next Office
Lead Architect: Alireza Taghaboni
Design Team: Alireza Taghaboni, Homa Asadi, Mehran Motamedinia, Farideh AghaMohammadi, Mehrdad Makaremi, Maziar Ghaseminia, Atefeh Lotfolahi, Hoodad Zoroufchiyan, Gelareh Geranseresht, Hadi Irani, Roja Aziz Zadeh, Peyman Nozari, Sara Tashayoei, Amir Pour Mohammad, Alireza Khalatbari, Masoud Soufiyani, Ehasan Ahani
Interior Design: Alireza Taghaboni
Client: Nexa
Constructor: NexaLine
Constructor Team: Mohammad Asadi, Ali Falah, Mohammadreza Etezad Al Saltaneh, Saeed Sharifipour, Ali Agahimand, Ali Ghazi, Parisa Hadadi, Elham Nazarieh, Reza Asgari, Mokhtar Darbandi, Arezo Mehdipour, Zahra Salehi, Mohammad Mohammadi Dehcheshmeh, Afshin Nori Fard, Ahmad Mavaji, Fereidon Pour Tavakoli, Hadi Mostafavi, Mohammad Reza Esbati, Ali Gharavi
Mechanical Installations Engineer: Bahram Eksiri
Structural Engineer: Reza Kamrani Rad
Structure: Concrete
Location: Western Third Street, 24 meter-wide Boulevard, Farhang Square Saadat Abad, Tehran
Total Land Area: 783 m²
Area of Construction: 7235 m²
Date: 2021–2024
Photographer: Taraneh Eftekhari, Parham Taghiof.
Website: www.nexagroup.net 
Website Nextoffice: www.nextoffice.co
Email: info@nexagroup.net 
Email Nextoffice: info@nextoffice.ae
Instagram: nexagroup
Instagram Nextoffice: nextoffice

We call Project Lumen ‘the corners project,’ since we were able to achieve independent planes by executing formal distortions and modifications in the corners of this infill block. By using strategies such as stripiness, semi-transparency, and multi-layering, these planes were turned into certain devices used to resolve problems of the third façade and of the form of the complex, simultaneously. Moreover, these surfaces helped tame and filter the strong light and radiation affecting the main facades of the project facing South and West.
In other words, the problem was to design a residential building that is visible on all sides to both passersby and adjacent neighbors, stands conspicuously in its field without neglecting the third facades, and does not look as if it is just another typical generic building. Furthermore, one of the principal challenges facing the project was controlling light radiation in the West Elevation-the side facing the street-in a way that, at the same time, the pros of landscape view and natural light are maintained while the cons of glare and extreme undesirable radiation on the facade are reduced to their minimum.
In order to retain formal coherence in the project, we primarily applied two main approaches: one of creating formal porosity in the corners to make space for terraces, and the other of controlling radiation by employing louvers. These approaches also provide the building with formal unity plus bringing a sense of comfort for its users.
The louvers are sliding on the façade as multi-dimensional panels in line with the floor levels. This helps them showcase visual variety and coincide with the internal functions, hence emphasizing the object as a coherent whole. Also, to distinguish the louvers in the façade from generic louvers commonly used, the upper and lower parts of each louver surface are installed diagonally tangent to the level plans. As a result, a kind of ‘comb-like’ texture was created in these exteriors.
The outcome of the project is introducing a quality of stripiness, semitransparency, and multilayered surfaces to the urban landscape. This quality bears an ambiguous integrity from the juxtaposition and multiplication of said ‘combs-like’ surfaces, and also creates different degrees of interiority, enclosure, and connection to the urban view for interior spaces.