This project is the outcome of the United Colors of Benetton
Competition to design new retail stores and offices in the middle of the cradle
of civilization once known as Persia
and modern day Iran.
The project quickly became an exiting exercise due its context that requires a
careful approach and understanding of the history of Iran culturally,
religiously, and architecturally. Since architecture finds its driving force of
creativity in the context and the purpose of its creation, the challenge of
merging a the backgrounds of both the site and the client created an
opportunity to explore the very best of both worlds and combine them in a
coherent structure that would consolidate the past and future, and the west and
east. We architects have a responsibility to create beauty but also to respond
to the context, program, and concept in order to create successful
architecture; furthermore, architecture is a problem solving process that
requires careful planning and over sight in order to produce a project for the
present but most importantly for the future. The process of this project
required a clear understanding of the western content and the eastern context
which later generated ideas beyond form generation but a pursuit of the
efficiency and capture of the essence of traditional Persian architecture.
