Overlapping arches shift from terracotta to blue across a house extension on the outskirts of Tehran. Iranian studio ZAV Architects designed the project, named Golmorad, an arched extension that looks as though it grew out of the existing building.
The home extension converts a weekend villa, originally designed by Firouz Firouz, into a permanent home in the town of Kouhsar. The client acquired three adjacent orchard plots, and the design reaches into them from both ends of the house.
Extensions that reinterpret an existing house take many forms, and a London example uses a very different material palette. Highgate cottage extension in weathering corten steel shows how a contrasting new skin can still honour tradition.
The walls are masonry, finished in plaster so the new work matches the earthen exterior of the original house. The curves are the main difference. They set the extension apart from its predecessor while keeping the same material palette.
Overlapping arches home extension branches from the core
Golmorad takes the form of an extension made of several arched roofs that overlap one another. The roofs overlap one another, forming a series of overlapping arched roofs.
At one end, the vaulted volume splits into two curved forms. Both forms step down in height as they extend outward. One wing holds a bedroom and an ensuite bathroom. The other contains an open-plan kitchen, living room and dining room, which opens onto an outdoor pool.
Gaps between the overlapping roof planes let daylight into the interior. The openings sit where the roofs meet, so they shape how light moves through the rooms.
Curves and layered volumes also change how light moves through a home, as another addition shows. Edinburgh townhouse’s red brick extension with curved details pairs traditional masonry with sculpted forms.
Colour as a record of change
ZAV Architects graded the colour across the building, moving from terracotta near the original house to blue at the newest branches. The shift is meant to reinforce the idea of growth in the project.
In its description to Dezeen, the studio said the project avoids two familiar options. “Rather than approaching the extension as either a replication of the original structure or a distinctly separate addition, the project explores a third possibility: an architecture that emerges from within the existing building itself,” ZAV Architects said.
The studio framed the work as grafting. “This intervention can be understood as a process of grafting, in which new needs and aspirations are grafted onto the existing body of the villa, giving rise to new architectural limbs that branch out and grow from it,” it said.
The architects also described the building as having changed over time. “It is as though the original building, while retaining its underlying architectural logic rooted in thick-earth construction, has developed new and distinct organs of its own.”
On the colour scheme, the studio said the original villa’s uniform tone “develops into a chromatic spectrum that radiates outward from the existing core towards the newly formed branches.” It added: “This transition makes the process of transformation visible, with each segmented shell expressing a distinct stage in the building’s evolution.”
Recognition
The project is shortlisted in the house extension category of this year’s Dezeen Awards. It also won the public vote, alongside a playground that ZAV Architects designed.
The studio’s work has earlier recognition too. ZAV Architects was among the winners of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the Majara Residence and Community Redevelopment, a domed cultural retreat on Iran‘s Hormuz island.
Via dezeen.com
Frequently asked questions
Who designed the Golmorad house extension near Tehran?
ZAV Architects, an Iranian studio, designed the Golmorad extension. The project is located in Kouhsar, on the outskirts of Tehran.
Why does the Golmorad extension shift from terracotta to blue?
ZAV Architects graded the colour from terracotta near the original house to blue at the newest branches. The shift is meant to reinforce the idea of growth in the project.
What was the original Golmorad villa converted into?
The extension converts a weekend villa, originally designed by Firouz Firouz, into a permanent home. The house is in the town of Kouhsar.
What rooms are inside the Golmorad extension’s two wings?
One wing holds a bedroom and an ensuite bathroom. The other contains an open-plan kitchen, living room and dining room, which opens onto an outdoor pool.
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