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Modern middle-class housing in Tehran - reproduction of an archetype: episodes of urbanism 1945 - 1979.

A domesticated shopping mall in modern Tehran: the (re)development of Ekbatan.

Unveiled middle-class housing in Tehran, 1945-1979.

Urban modernization in Iran accelerated in the 1940s through the construction of mass housing for the middle class, part of a nation-building process started by Reza Shah in the 1930s. The core of this modernization was a dramatic change in the traditional meaning of private and public both conceptually and spatially. Laws dictated the unveiling of women and the modernization of men’s traditional apparel. As a result, the appearance of the middle class led to changes in Iran’s urban development through the formation of new, mass housing typologies. By unveiling women, houses unveiled themselves as well, opening themselves to public spaces and experiencing a dramatic change in their spatial composition. This chapter examines parallels between the transformation of women’s appearance and their visibility in society and the new housing typologies that were created.

Re-visiting three neighborhoods of modern Tehran: Chaharsad-Dastgah, Narmak, and Nazi-Abad.

Architects and ‘Architecture without architects’: Modernization of Iranian housing and the birth of a new urban form Narmak (Tehran, 1952).

This essay investigates the Iranian encounter with and influence on the international modernist movement. The reception of international modernist discourses and their weaving into Iranian housing- and city-building practices contributed to the formation of a peculiar, alternative, and indigenous version of modernism that took hold in the 1950s. While such practices were clearly part of the international modern movement, they were simultaneously definable as uniquely Iranian. By analyzing the Narmak quarter in Tehran, this paper explores how the production of a middle-class neighborhood became part of a nation-building strategy. Through processes of moderation and appropriation, the idealistic modernist version was made more practical based on pre-existing socio-cultural characteristics and typological elements. Ultimately, this local version of modernism led to the acceptance of modernism, provoked an urban reaction and produced some unexpected social consequences.

The institutionalization of modern middle class neighborhoods in 1940s Tehran – Case of Chaharsad Dastgah.

In the 1940s, Iran experienced dramatic changes in urban form, as worldwide modernization movements were embodied in new ‘modern’ neighborhood units in Tehran. Proposals for these neighborhoods, like those in other countries, not only included new housing typologies, but also aimed to alter existing social structures and facilitate nation building. Discussions and proposals regarding new neighborhoods centered on creating healthy, suitable, low-cost housing for new government employees – a group emblematic of Iran's newly established, modern middle class. However, the traditional lifestyle was an undeniable fact of society. Facing the modern socio-urban policies and socially traditional way of living led to both cultural change and landscape transformation. This paper discusses: how do regional architectural traditions transform the global modernity? How are Western conventions of how to be modern transformed by regional tradition and a different lifestyle? How does the institutionalization of modern neighborhoods, based on the lifestyles of its people, create an indigenous modernity? This paper illustrates how urban and social reformation practices towards modernization in the early twentieth century were embodied by Tehran's first modern neighborhood, Chaharsad Dastgah, as well as how domestic Iranian lifestyles influenced this neighborhood and distinguished it from its contemporaries.