Abstract:

This project explores architecture as a medium of coexistence between two historical narratives that have never been allowed to occupy the same space. Located in the historic core of Tehran, the site appears today as a governmental property, yet beneath it lie silenced layers of history. Adjacent to Golestan Palace, the site once hosted the Takieh Dowlat, a monumental 19th-century circular theater for Ta‘zieh rituals, later demolished during modernization. Beneath this layer lies the Siyah-Chal, an underground prison where the founder of the Bahá’í faith was imprisoned. For the Bahá’í community, this site marks a sacred origin that has been systematically denied and concealed. Rather than setting boundaries, the project proposes an architecture that allows incompatible histories to remain present without hierarchy. At its core stands a monumental cylindrical void, translating the spatial memory of the Siyah-Chal into a void shaped by darkness and a vertical axis of light. At its base, a circular stage reinterprets the Takieh’s spatial logic through a spiraling ramp. Operating as both a memorial and a performance space, the project enables memory to be continuously re-enacted. An underground layer accommodates cultural and educational programs, while a controlled-access space acknowledges the Siyah-Chal as sacred ground. The project imagines coexistence not as reconciliation, but as a spatial condition where differences remain visible and active.