Miyan

This project is the renovation of the ground floor of a part of an office building (with an area of 70 square meters) of a stone warehouse located in the city of Esfahan in Iran. Considering the function of the stone warehouse, block stone (stone blocks extracted from the stone quarry) was used as a pattern. To divide the space, instead of using the wall as a separating element, a volume with a stone block pattern was considered inside the main space dividing the space into two parts. Afterward, by emptying the added stone mass, space was divided into three parts (office, meeting, and dining area) to maintain the integrity of the space and at the same time divide it into three functional areas, all three parts with favorite lighting and a view to the green space. We also used the block stone pattern to empty a part of the building wall and interior space, creating a third space or intermediate space. This space was in fact an expanded border between inside and outside, which is not defined as a wall and a mass, but as a space with a new expression. This space creates a moving connection between indoor and outdoor space and provides a better link to nature and a different visual experience (framed nature), promoting the quality of indoor space. This spatial definition has caused the border between inside and outside, which was previously defined as a narrow wall, to expand according to the spatial pattern of Iranian architecture and become a middle and intermediate space.

According to the Iranian architecture, the courtyard, porch, and alcove have always served as a mediating space (porch) and a midway link between inside and outside, connecting these two spaces. Similarly, in this project, we tried to comply with the same pattern. Accordingly, we created a middle and wide space like a porch to redefine this concept of space, and instead of creating a narrow, definite, and absolute wall as an inside and outside border, a fluid, wide and continuous border emerged as space. This space is neither outside nor inside and is both outside and inside; a space that is “between” two spaces inside and outside and a mix of both spaces. This middle space was created by reducing the space quantitatively to add to space qualitatively. Furthermore, this spatial boundary is in the form of a crystalline division space restricting the path of movement, maintaining privacy, and providing a hierarchy of different parts of space, so that it subconsciously induces a feeling in strangers that they are not allowed to cross it to enter other parts. Based on the redefinition of the spatial pattern of Iranian architecture (courtyard, porch, alcove), an attempt was made to reproduce the third element (alcove) of this spatial system with a different expression. Accordingly, the central space was designed differently from other parts of the interior space to provide a new expression of the alcove space. Just as the alcove has had a privileged view to the courtyards of Iranian houses, in this project, the space created inside the cube (alcove) by framing a part of the greenery in front of it, offers a different visual experience with a new expression of the spatial and visual quality of the alcove to the user of the space.