Qom Central Building of Construction Engineering Organization / Partar Architecture Studio

Written by Karissa Rosenfield
Published on December 01, 2013

The design for the Qom Central Building of Construction Engineering Organization by Partar Architecture Studio began with “a key question that discussed the feasibility and impossibility of imagining a unique design which best suits the spatial quality of traditional Iranian architecture." Partar’s design process was based on this challenge, and has led to an interesting proposal that attempts to bridge the art of architecture and the technology of construction using an understanding of the phenomenological aspects of Persian art and ornament, coupled with traditional Persian building techniques.

According to the architects, in order “to convey the significance of traditional architectural structures which are hardly exposed physically in historical works, [they] decided to propose a building as a massive volume due to the hot and dry climate of the region." This enormous volumetric space “offers apertures which display the structure of the building, just like the ribs of a body." This method of design represent the settings of typical Persian spaces experienced in the Bazzar (the market), the Chaarsogh (where markets meet), the Timcheh (local market) and the Gonbadkhaneh (main domed hall).

Persian architecture is defined by an understanding of niyaresh, or the “architectural perception of structure." For Partar, “formic use of traditional arcades and shapes in the contemporary world is an outdated approach which needs to be revised. Arched and vaulted shapes in traditional architecture were only structural solutions for spanning the distance between two pillars - they were not a natural symbolic shape." Consequently, niyaresh patterns and Persian aesthetics should not be interpreted in a formic approach, but a structural approach which incorporates contemporary Persian architecture.

The building’s structure is “a combination of concrete and four space frames with a holistic concrete membrane” with two “concrete walls located in the north west and south east corners of the building acting as bracing." “The quadruplet space frames transfer the enormous weight of slabs like four huge columns which also serve as ornaments.” Finally, “pre-stressed concrete slabs are exploited to achieve thinness for the floors."