Presence in Hormuz 02 | Community empowerment via urban development, Hormuz Island, Iran. Designed by ZAV Architects

-text by the authors

Hormuz is a formerly glorious historic port in the strategic strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, South of Iran, that controls the shipment of petroleum from the Middle East.

DIAGRAM

The island has outstanding colorful surreal landscapes. Oddly, the local inhabitants of the beautiful, touristic and politically strategic island struggle economically, getting involved in illegal trafficking activities using their boats.

TOPOGRAPHIC PLAN OF MAJARA RESIDENCE IN ITS CONTEXT

Presence in Hormuz is a series of urban developments by a semi-public institution that hired ZAV Architects, in order to empower the local community of the island.

CHARTA SQUARE: ENTRANCE AREA OF THE ACCOMMODATION SECTION. PHOTOGRAPH BY TAHMINEH MONZAVI

Its second phase is a multipurpose cultural residence called Majara residence (meaning adventure) that ties together the lives of local people and visitors both culturally and economically.

VIEW FROM THE SOUTH-WEST, ABOVE THE WALKABLE ROOFTOPS. PHOTOGRAPH BY PAYMAN BARKHORDARI
What’s to my benefit, what’s to the benefit of all?
SECTION B-B

In a country where the state struggles with political disputes outside its borders, every architectural project becomes a proposal for internal governing alternatives, asking basic questions: what are the limits of architecture and how can it suggest a political alternative for communal life?

CHARTA AS AN INTERSTICE SPACE BETWEEN INSIDE AND OUTSIDE. PHOTOGRAPH BY TAHMINEH MONZAVI

How can it attain social agency?
Architecture has the capacity be a mediator in the middle ground that converges the interests of different groups, from the state and investors to various classes and groups of people.

UPPER LEVEL SPATIAL UNIT COLONIES. PHOTOGRAPH BY PAYMAN BARKHORDARI

Majara does so in bringing together the owners of land from the neighboring port of Bandar Abbas who organize an annual land art event in Hormuz, the investors from the capital city Tehran, and the local people of Hormuz as partners in the project.

ADJACENCY OF ACCOMMODATION UNITS IN THE LOWER LEVEL OF THE SITE. PHOTOGRAPH BY PAYMAN BARKHORDARI

Under the economic distress of sanctions, increasing the GDP generates social change, which in this project is achieved by:
1. Building economically, to the benefit of the client.
2. Earmarking a bigger share of the budget to labor costs rather than expensive imported materials, to the benefit of the local population, empowering them by offering training for construction skills.
3. An adaptive and future-proof spatial scenario that can respond to unpredicted need, to the benefit of the client and the island.
4. Using materials and human resources from Iran, to reduce construction and transportation costs and increase the GDP, to the benefit of the whole country.

Infinite Nader Khalili’s
HALL INSIDE A UNIT. PHOTOGRAPH BY TAHMINEH MONZAVI

Presence in Hormuz is a continuous process aiming at building trust rather than architectural objects, in order to encourage the participation of local people and the inclusion of their interests in any intervention in the island.

ACCOMMODATION UNIT FOR FOUR PERSONS. PHOTOGRAPH BY TAHMINEH MONZAVI

The project is a multitude of small-scale domes built with the superadobe technique of Nader Khalili, the innovative and simple technique using rammed earth and sand. Domes are familiar structures in the region.

LOCALLY PRODUCED FURNITURE IS USED TO FURNISH THE SPACES. PHOTOGRAPH BY TAHMINEH MONZAVI

Their small scale makes them compatible with the building capabilities of local craftsmen and unskilled workers, which have been prepared for this project with previous smaller projects. Today they are trained master superadobe masons, as if Nader Khalili multiplied exponentially.

INTERIOR SPACE OF MAJARA RESIDENCE PRICED 20 DOLLARS A NIGHT. PHOTOGRAPH BY TAHMINEH MONZAVI
Swelling Earth
ADJACENCY OF ACCOMMODATION UNITS IN THE LOWER LEVEL OF THE SITE. PHOTOGRAPH BY TAHMINEH MONZAVI

the infinite number of colorful particles, be they soil, sand, gravel or stone, pile up and form the rainbow topography of Hormuz island.

VISITORS FROM DIFFERENT SOCIAL CLASSES IN THE RESTAURANT OF MAJARA RESIDENCE IN COEXISTENCE. PHOTOGRAPH BY TAHMINEH MONZAVI

In this project a carpet is woven with granular knots inspired by the particles that make up the ecotone of the island. The sandbags that create the spatial particles (aka domes) are filled with the dredging sand of the Hormuz dock, as if the earth has swollen to produce space for accommodation.

MAJARA RESIDENCE (TOP VIEW). PHOTOGRAPH BY DJI

Credits & Details

Project name:           PRESENCE IN HORMUZ 2

Architecture Firm:  ZAV Architects
      Design Team
      Lead Architects:         Mohamadreza Ghodousi, Fatemeh Rezaei, Golnaz Bahrami, Soroush Majidi
      Design Assistants:     Sheila Ehsaei,Sara Jafari, Payman Barkhordari, Mohsen Safshekan, Kaveh Rashidzadeh, Hossein 
                                             Panjehpour
      Landscape:                  Maryam Yousefi, Morteza Adib
      Interior Design:          Sara Jafari, Taraneh Behboud, Sara Nikkar, Mohsen Dehghan
      Light Consultant:       Tajang Light
      Supervision:                Soroush Majidi, Payman Barkhordari, Sheila Ehsaei
      Modeling:                    Somayeh Saeidi
      Presentation:              Fereshteh Assadzadeh, Somayeh Saeidi, Arshia Hashemipour, Dorsa Tavakoli, Sara Fallahzadeh

Completion Year:  2020

Gross Built Area:   10300 m2

Area:                        4000 m2

Landscape Area:   6300 m2

Project location:   Iran, Hormuz Island

Photo credits:       Tahmineh Monzavi, Soroush Majidi, Payman Barkhordari 


RELATED ARTICLES