The small house is located in the west side of Tehran, where the city has found its way between the steep slopes of ALBORZ chain on north and the salty desert on south. The building is located on a narrow plot (w=8.5) and is confined on two sides by the other houses. A small setback from the street, provides just enough space for a small front yard. The term approximation stands for the approach of humanizing the entire process of creation, from drawing to execution, by valorizing the defects versus perfectness of works entrusted to machines. Formerly, in her “40 Knots House, she tried to valorize the human imperfectness in a traditional way of performing art work, borrowed from the carpet weaving craft.
In the “Approximation House”, the craftsmen can express themselves through personalizing their way of shaping thousands of pieces of wood, that are going to be the main material for the façade. In that specific context, facade is the only architectural element, which can efficiently connect the building to its surroundings. Here façade is much more than a decorated screen; it is a penetrable green micro ecosystem, which connects the courtyard to the roof and extends on both side as elements of green floor and roof garden. The house consists of two duplex apartments in which will reside a father with his daughter. There will be also an apartment dedicated to guesthouse.
Although the apartments are rather small, the interior has all the qualities of a three dimensional space: it is articulated in section and can be discovered from several points of view in the space. The skylights, introduce the natural light and the sky scene into the house.
The function of tridimensional wooden texture is to mitigate the strong sunlight of Tehran and to create a play of light and shadow in interior space. It provides also privacy for the building’s inhabitants. This intricate structure consists of thousands of small wooden round section battens, which will be individually formed and shaped by the workers within a defined freedom. At the end every piece of wood becomes a unique handmade statue and when installed on the façade the result will be an art work belonging to all the people participating in the construction team work.
Persian gardens are well known around the word. In addition to plants and flowers, birds have been an inseparable part of the gardens. Iranian poets have provided infinite poetic descriptions of the birds and flowers. Iranian traditional chant is based on imitating the song of nightingale. During its growth, the city has swallowed most of the existing gardens and woods. The 180 different species of bird, except a few, could not adapt themselves to the new artificial habitat. In addition to dense vegetation, the approximation house is a critical project to the destruction of Tehran's gardens and the loss of bird habitat.
2017
2020
Architectural Firm / Designer: Habibeh Madjdabadi Architecture Studio
Client: Dr.Fariborz jahantighi
Location: Tehran
Design : 2017
construction finished 2020
total area : 1500m2
Architecture and Design : Habibeh Madjdabadi
Engineering: Vahid gharekhani,Hoofar esmaeeli, Nina Amooshahi
Contractor : Aref Khodaei
Image credits: Habibeh Madjdabadi Architecture Studio
