• en
  • fa
  • de

PRESENCE IN HORMUZ 02 | MAJARA RESIDENCE

Community empowerment via urban development, Hormuz Island, Iran 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. 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. Presence in Hormuz is a series of urban developments by a private institution that hired ZAV Architects, in order to empower the local community of the island. 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. What’s to my benefit, what’s to the benefit of all? 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? 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. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. Swelling Earth the infinite number of colorful particles, be they soil, sand, gravel or stone, pile up and form the rainbow topography of Hormuz island. 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.

Awards

Dezeen | 2022 | short Listed
Createurs Design Awards | 2022 | Winner
World Architecture Festival (WAF) | 2021 | short Listed
World Architecture Festival (WAF) | 2021 | Winner
Grand Prix du Design | 2021 | Golden Winner
Grand Prix du Design | 2021 | Golden Winner
Architizer A+Awards | 2021 | Winner
ArchDaily | 2021 | Building of the Year 2021
Taipei International Design Award (TIDA) | 2020 | Gold Medal
Memar Awards | 2020 | Second Prize

Publications

INTERIORS MAGAZINES
Down To The Earth
The World’s Best Architecture Book
l'Arca Magazine
Interior Design Magazine
DETAIL Magazine
CALZADA FOX
domus
ELLE DÉCORATION Magazine
Arketipo 154
Contemporary Architecture – Masterpieces around the World-Braun
AS Architecture Suisse Direction
The Archdaily Guide to Good Architecture BOOK
FRAME magazine
C3 Magazine
HOUSES THAT CAN SAVE THE WORLD book
id+c magazine
TRAITS D'CO Magazine
SI Travel Magazine
Acumen Magazine
l'Ufficio tecnico Magazine
estilopropio magazine
Identity Magazine
Kinfolk Magazine
AZURE Magazine
SOPRA UN BOSCO DI CHIODI book
World Architecture Magazine China
ZEITS Magazine
STYLE MAGAZINE
WonderBook-IFDM Magazine
INTERNI magazine
Baunetz-id newsletter
Waku Waku Japanese online magazine
Frame magazine
IDEAS FOR GOOD website
AD Middle East Magazine
hypebeastarabia
IFDM.design
Casentino Website
El Viajero Magazine
Brazilian Magazine- Persa VIP

News

Low Tech Domes made of Earth in the Persian Gulf
Betonart Architecture and Design Magazine Article
Down to Earth: Rammed Earth Architecture Book
Rainbow Island
ARCHITONIC
SOPRA UN BOSCO DI CHIODI Book
HOUSES THAT CAN SAVE THE WORLD Book
One of the Architectural wonders of the World
SI Travel Magazine
Winner – Architecture – best hospitality project – Createurs design Awards Presence in Hormuz 02 – Majara Residence
Golden Winner 2021 – International Category – GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 14e edition
Golden Winner 2021 – Commercial Building – Hotel & Holiday Resort – GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 14e edition
DETAIL Magazine Online
WINNER – Special Prize (Color) – Completed Building – WAF 2021
ShortListed – Hospitality – DEZEEN
Brazilian Magazine – Persa VIP
Shortlist – Hotel And Leisure – Completed Building – WAF 2021
ELLE DÉCORATION Magazine
IDEAS FOR GOOD Magazine
C3 Magazine
l'Arca Magazine
INTERIOR DESIGN Magazine
Kinfolk Magazine
Estilo Propio Magazine
FRAME Magazine
Winner – Housing – ArchDaily Building of the Year 2021
Winner – Architecture+Color – Architizer A+AWARDS
Voting– ArchDaily Building of the Year 2021
Identity Magazine- Issue 206
Fact Sheet- Presence in Hormuz 02
El Viajero Newspaper
ICON Magazine
Architizer: The World’s best Architcture
Baunetzwoche Magazine
More Sports. More Architecture
Dezeen
TimeOut Magazine
Designboom Website
Archdaily Website
WINNER – Best Use of Colour – WAF 2021
Golden Award – Public Space Design – Taipei International Design Award
2nd Prize- Public Buildings- Memar Awards 2020
World Architecture Magazine- No.358

Lead Architect(s)

Mohamadreza Ghodousi, Fateme Rezaei Fakhr, Golnaz Bahrami, Soroush Majidi,

Client(s)

Ehsan Rasoulof,

Design Team

Sheila Ehsaei, Payman Barkhordari, Sara Jafari, Mohsen Safshekan, Negar Monzavian, Hosein Panjeh Pour, Kaveh Rashid Zadeh,

Graphic & Illustration

Fereshteh Assadzadeh, Somayeh Saeedi, Arshia Hashemipour, Dorsa Tavakoli, Sara Fallahzadeh, Saman Soleimanian,

Supervision

Sheila Ehsaei, Soroush Majidi, Payman Barkhordari,

Landscape

Maryam Yousefi, Morteza Adib,

Interior Design

Sara Nikkar, Taraneh Behboud, Sara Jafari, Mohsen Dehghan,

Construction

Amir Tehrani Nobahari,

Construction Manager

Hormat Ghasemi,

Construction Vice Manager

Amin Timas, Ramin Kulaghani,

Civil

Farhad Beigi,

Structural Consultant

Behrang Baniadam, Rouhi Touski,

Mechanical Engineer

Saeid Afsharian,

Electrical Engineer

Pejman Moradian,

Mechanical Construction

Hamid Haji Posht-e-Gol, Javad Irandegani,

Electrical Construction

Hamid Haji Posht-e-Gol, Javad Irandegani,

Light Consultant

Nima Bayat, Tajang Light,

Photographer(s)

Tahmineh Monzavi, Soroush Majidi, Payman Barkhordari,