Residential Building Eleven, Farhad Bagherzadeh Chaharjooei, Farzad Bagherzadeh Chaharjooei

Architectural Design Team: Farhad Bagherzadeh Chaharjooei, Farzad Bagherzadeh Chaharjooei, Samira Tarzfan, Roya Khazaeinejad, Mohsen Malek Sabet
Main Project Executives: Farhad Bagherzadeh Chaharjooei, Farzad Bagherzadeh Chaharjooei, Engineer Heidari, Engineer Hassanzadeh
Client and Stakeholders: Arian Investment Group
Project Start and Completion Years: 2021–2023
Project Area and Land Surface: Built Area: 3,000 m2 – Land: 600 m2
Address: Between Vakil Abad 23 and 25.
Website: www.arianprojects.com
Email: arian.engineering.group@gmail.com
Instagram: arian.engineering.group

The Residential Building No. 11 is part of a series of client projects continuously underway in Mashhad. The construction regulations for urban blocks similar to the approximately 600-square-meter site of this project stipulate a 60% building coverage and a 360% density limit.
The remaining 40% open space on the site, after the building’s mass is placed, typically functions as a transitional area connecting the six-story building to the access route, which 19 families and their guests use to reach their apartments. This open space no longer serves the role of a private courtyard, which in traditional houses was a space for life, family gatherings, connection with nature, and finding tranquility. Instead, it merely becomes the leftover area after the placement of the building mass.
Therefore, the design challenge shifted from focusing on “mass architecture” to focusing on “space architecture.”
The pedestrian access was defined through this courtyard, and by dedicating part of the courtyard to the urban sidewalk (through a setback in its edge), a plaza scaled to match the building itself was created.
By utilizing the sunken garden pattern, the basement was transformed from the dark, low-quality space typical of contemporary buildings into a vibrant, green area suitable for collective activities such as children’s play and ceremonies. Visual and physical connections for pedestrians and vehicles were also added to bring dynamism and movement to the public courtyard.
A green bridge was designed to connect the urban plaza at the entrance to the interior of the building, passing through the sunken garden.
A residential unit on the ground floor was defined, whose quality was diminished due to it’s proximity to the public courtyard and the pedestrian passage near its windows. The solution for this issue was found in defining a private courtyard for the ground-floor unit, separated from the public domain through the sunken garden.
By extending greenery to the middle domain (between the base level and the top floor), the sense of life was infused into the homes.
The top-floor units (sixth floor) were designed with a central courtyard pattern. These courtyards, as the beating heart of the home, not only increase greenery, light, and sunlight but also serve as family gathering hubs, offering a piece of the sky back to modern homes.
The open space that was meant to act as a courtyard and gather the home’s residents lost this fundamental role within the regulatory structure for massing. To restore this role, the design turned to the roof, which is distanced from the public urban spaces and base-level accesses, allowing for the creation of a tranquil semi-public courtyard. The green roof includes green seating areas, pergolas, children’s play areas, and a water pond.