First Quad is an architecture exhibition of the works of Ali Khiabanian, Diba Samadi & Mahsa Abedi. This collection is a reaction to Iran's cubic buildings in recent years. The exhibition was held at the Yasmi Gallery of Tabriz Department of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Exhibition works include sketches, replicas, 3D models and animations.

Curator: Kobra Radpour

Address: Yasemi Gallery, Culture House, Abrasan, Tabriz, Iran

Date: August 4 to 9 – 4 - 7 PM

Link of Animations: Scatter Box in the City 1 -  Scatter Box in the City 2 -  Space Design -  Space & Shadows - Facade Design.

From left: Mahsa Abedi, Ali Khiabanian, Diba Samadi

Why exhibition?

Box means a logical, static, specific and inflexible thought enslaved man in different dimensions of life. It should be mentioned that box has not any problem by itself. The problem is the form or thought dominates our design or thought method, i.e. to imprison ourselves in a framework, do not pay attention to what is beyond us, being forced not to think about what is beyond us, and do not take any action. This includes different dimensions of life at different societies. 

Although most people suffer from routine, repetitive and erosion, some societies are more flexible against it. We enjoy less from life and we do not trust to what we have. I hope I can deal with it more in another anthology. When I passed simple combinations which are familiar to all and knew boxes more, feel enthusiastic to continue the experience to move beyond it, to convert its restrictions and static to a chance to creativity and dynamism, and to try to suspend, move and make it flexible in design and compare it with other forms. It required a dynamic, adventurous, criticizing and creative thought, a thought which is not satisfied to what it has and passes beyond the borders.

Design & modeling by Mahsa Abedi

As a designer, I always was wondering why boxes are playing a more significant role in the world of architecture and design and how they are still stable in architecture in spite of several mental and technological variations and why they encountered few specific, repetitive and anticipatable changes. Still, when we talk about skyscrapers, most people think about a glass cube. When we want to design a residential apartment, it normally starts with a box so we work on a box. In spite of existence of creative and variable ideas, plans and concepts designed and experienced in authentic universities by creative and avant-garde architects all over the world, why few changes are observed in viewpoint of architects, people and those involved in construction profession? Why do such people enjoy from watching a spatial city or a ship made of strange volumes in a fiction movie? Why are they excited? Why do they tell it to each other while they, themselves, live and work inside inanimate boxes? Why do changes or effects in architecture progress slowly while the avant-garde ideas are being put in practice in technology, cinema, medicine, etc.?

                                                                                       Poster of sketches by Diba Samadi 

In this anthology, I & my creative students challenged our architectural conception and creativity borders, repeated many times the samples of works of different art and architecture universities, especially sculpture, and what studied in the books on "recognition of form and space" in form of architectural design and form, sketched and studied their design and though method, created my experiences in a new form with a new attitude, and added my story to previous works. Hope this book can emphasize on a creative and dynamic thought to use what we have not as holy and unchangeable signs rather as opportunities to change and evolve and use our mental box as an excuse to pass the borders beside endeavors and works of artists and thinkers of different fields.

Texture deformation on the box. Modeling and rendering by Ali Khiabanian in 3ds Max software.

Modeling and rendering by Ali Khiabanian.

Subtract & Union, modeling and rendering by Ali Khiabanian.

Transition of Boxes. 3D modeling and rendering by Ali Khiabanian in 3ds Max software

All images courtesy of Ali Khiabanian.