A COMPELLING ARCHITECTURAL NARRATIVE

THE BRICKS ON THE MOVE BUILDING BY ÁKARAN ARCHITECTS IN TEHRAN IS AN ODE TO MATERIALITY AND LEAVES ANY BYSTANDER AWESTRUCK FOR ITS UNIQUE STRUCTURE. WE TAKE A DEEP DIVE INTO WHAT MAKES THIS BUILDING SPECIAL IN A CONVERSATION WITH THE MASTERMINDS MOEEN AFZALKHANI AND ZAHRA AZIZI.

- MASTERMINDS MOEEN AFZALKHANI AND ZAHRA AZIZI

Zomorrod 11, or Bricks on the Move, as it is lovingly called, may look like a stack of cubes to anyone looking at it from the heart of a traffic junction in Tehran, but in reality, it is much more than what meets the eye! Within the building is ensconced 5 entire floors of underground parking, a double-height commercial ground floor, six floors above containing state-of-the-art offices with a private terrace on the first floor and a private roof garden on the 6th level.

It is difficult to ignore Zimorrod 11. When you have looked it once, you will be forced to have a look again. And this time, you will see a totally different perspective of the structure. The second look is bound to be transitional. The reason being, the brains behind the unique façade of this building, Akaran Architects, have incorporated the use of geometric brick pattern modules. The strategy makes the exterior façade of the building stretch inside, forming many elements of the interior.

THE BRICK STORY

Traditional kiln-baked bricks were chosen to bring a nostalgic sense of space to the building. The bricks are perforated to make them as lightweight as possible, both for the mobile panels (to ease their movement) and for the static parts of the building to minimize the weight imposed on the structure, as also to enable dry installment using screws.