بنیاد مختومقلی فراغی

Contemporary Iranian Architecture Since 1300 Solar Hijri Calendar to The Present Day

Iranian architecture prevailed with the “European architecture” during the Qajar period, and similar buildings were constructed by the Qajar aristocrats and then the middle-class people. Qajars came to know the European architecture through itineraries and photographs, and thus the buildings of this period were constructed without any knowledge of the principles of European styles. While many historians believe that the difference between Qajar architecture and European architecture is that Qajars wrongly imitated the West without any knowledge of modernity roots.

During Reza Shah era, various orientations led by Iranian architects educated in Europe and European architects invited by the government to Iran appeared against traditional architecture. Their architecture was a direct reflection of the evolution of modern European architecture. They replaced previous methods with new materials, especially concrete, steel and glass and innovative approaches to create structures. The most prominent of these changes was the use of concrete that provided Iranian architects with unprecedented features respecting structure and aesthetics.

In 1319, the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Tehran was founded in three disciplines, including architecture. In the following years, the first architects of the University of Tehran became the heirs of the first generation of Iranian architects, all of whom were educated in Europe. They were the most influential group in consolidating the principles and concepts of modern architecture in Iran. Other factors involved the development of modern architecture and construction of residential settlements and housing in the twenties and thirties decades of solar Hijri calendar. By the middle of the 1920s solar Hijri calendar, residential units in towns and villages were constructed in a traditional way using indigenous materials such as clay, wood and chaff-mud mortar. Since the end of the Second World War onwards, a movement begun in which materials such as bricks, girder and concrete were used.

During the era of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, numerous architecture trends gave way to the dominant and influential trend of modern architecture. The modern architecture formed during this period was mainly supported by the works of European architects and thinkers such as the international style, the Bauhaus School, the works of Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Noyotra, Alvar Aalto and James Sterling, and the result was the Iranian form of modern architecture, which was called “the pseudo modernist”.

Historical architecture was formed as a stream parallel to the dominant atmosphere of modernist Iranian architecture between the decades of 1340 and 1350 Hijri Calendar, and was heavily influenced by Iranian intellectual trends during those decades. A few things helped it to shape and orient.

History- and habitat-driven architecture in its broadest sense calls for the restoration or continuation of the traditions and beliefs of domestic culture.

Iranian Architecture after the Islamic Revolution

After the Islamic Revolution of Iran, architects embraced a wide range of artistic trends and movements and tried to push Iran's architecture toward a free identity. The main trend of Iranian architects in the two decades after the revolution was architecture in line with traditional Iranian cultural heritage and architecture, and at least in buildings under the control of the government there can be seen no other trend. Under the influence of classicism postmodern movement, these architects tried to give Iran's contemporary architecture the Iranian appearance. During this period, the style supported by the government and the Mode Emrouz Magazine was also inclined toward Iranian-Islamic architecture. This tendency is mainly manifested in important government buildings supported by government agencies.

Main concerns of architects after the Revolution is to reconcile tradition with modern architecture subjects and developments.