Shams Cultural Center
Type: Civic – Cultural
Scale: 13500 sqm
In contemporary urban vision, the historic fabric is no longer a collection of disjointed components but a continuous space where life flows.
This project attempts to redefine the relationship between the old city and Golestan Garden; a “Brick Urban Path” acts as an urban carpet, detaching the pedestrian from the city’s chaos and guiding them, step by step, toward the sanctuary of the garden and the silence of the monument.
Shams is a formless truth found only through Rumi’s texts. The project’s body translates this very concept: a structure of Tabriz Brick, perforated with smart voids to inhale light and wind. This monument is not a static form but a living, pneumatic mechanism. The Tabriz wind, passing through “throat-like” elements embedded in the walls, produces a dual sound: a whistle and a hum, culminating in “Sohoot”—the sound of silence.
The interior space is a metaphor for the “Sama” dance. Mechanical mechanisms consisting of two rotating rings (allegories of Shams and Rumi) are driven by wind power, scattering a rapturous murmur resembling the sound of Daf drums and bells throughout the space. Here, architecture functions as a wind instrument; a cage of light and sound that immerses the observer in the seven stages of mysticism, from Unity (Tawhid) to Annihilation (Fana).
HAJIZADEHs
Architecture: Kourosh Hajizadeh – Amir Mehdi Khademi – Arezoo Izadyari – Alireza Esfandiari – Amir Hossein Hajizadeh
Visualization: Alireza Esfandiari
Model: Arezoo Izadyari
Model Photos: Kourosh Hajizadeh – Amir Hossein Hajizadeh
Prize: Winner of the competition – First Place
Location: Tabriz, Iran
Date: 2010
