Amirhossein Lahouti
The main concept of this project for me was formed from a Persian word called “Hamsayeh”(همسایه).
In translation, this word means neighbor, but in reality it has a deeper meaning. In Persian culture we love to share whatever we have with people, friends, family, guests or even strangers. “Hamsaye” means someone we share our shade or shadow with or we live in each other’s shadow. Now you can see how we feel about our neighbor or HAMSAYE. We are attached to them as we are attached to our shadow.
The relationship between the residents of a building and the residents of the surrounding buildings in Persian culture is much more than what we see in the West. In addition to having a lot of information about each other, neighbors help each other in various activities throughout the day, sometimes they eat together, gossip together and even make important decisions.
In fact, they build a community that breaks the boundaries of individual life and creates a bigger boundary in the area of a neighborhood, and regardless of what job they have, they spend hours of their day together in the common spaces of that neighborhood. Unfortunately, this relationship has faded in the densely populated cities of Iran, but it has not disappeared yet.
In translation, this word means neighbor, but in reality it has a deeper meaning. In Persian culture we love to share whatever we have with people, friends, family, guests or even strangers. “Hamsaye” means someone we share our shade or shadow with or we live in each other’s shadow. Now you can see how we feel about our neighbor or HAMSAYE. We are attached to them as we are attached to our shadow.
The relationship between the residents of a building and the residents of the surrounding buildings in Persian culture is much more than what we see in the West. In addition to having a lot of information about each other, neighbors help each other in various activities throughout the day, sometimes they eat together, gossip together and even make important decisions.
In fact, they build a community that breaks the boundaries of individual life and creates a bigger boundary in the area of a neighborhood, and regardless of what job they have, they spend hours of their day together in the common spaces of that neighborhood. Unfortunately, this relationship has faded in the densely populated cities of Iran, but it has not disappeared yet.
My project tries to restore the strong connection between neighbors with an urban infrastructure in this in-between space in the neighborhood. The surrounding buildings with different shapes and clear and thick borders first get more connected with the city, then their connection with each other will expand and then they expand their borders and create a general border.
It has three entrances that bring the flow of pedestrians into the neighborhood and lead them to the outdoor gathering space. Also, next to each of these ramps, there is an entrance on the ground level, which is the entrance to the underneath space of this project.
The underneath space can be a shared closed space for the whole community, like a shared workspace or a gym, this space also provides its light through the hollow holes that are scattered throughout this building.
In the end, these organized connections below and above the project can give residents and pedestrians a closer experience of the concept of what we know as "Hamsayeh" in Persian culture.
In the end, these organized connections below and above the project can give residents and pedestrians a closer experience of the concept of what we know as "Hamsayeh" in Persian culture.