BRIEF GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS from JURY

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The task of defining a gradation of quality in the wide range of beautiful projects produced by Alessandra De Cesaris' interesting Iran Lab initiative was as difficult as ever to fulfil.

I therefore proceeded to identify at least three proposals that seemed to me, although similar to the quality of many others, capable of expressing lines of tendency for public space that responded to the appropriateness, topicality and contextualisation of the project. Three equals, therefore, with respect to three themes of equal fundamental importance in contemporary urban design: Kushk and Valiasr by Event Studio and Reflections by Fatemeh Behrooz.

I would also like to add a special mention and acknowledgement: an acknowledgement to the Isfahan Courts project, so close to our European sensibility and our focus on sustainable transformation. The study of urban fabrics at the time of intervention has long since become an indispensable must in our parts. Even a sometimes frankly redundant requirement. To see it proposed with great dedication, in a country whose cultural traditions and history are in any case different from ours, is a remarkable fact, not because of the usual Europe-centrism, but because the issue of protecting the fabrics of the pre-existing city, even in the project of innovation, today has universal value. A special mention goes to green for its global symbolic significance, in the days of COP 28 in Dubai.

Roberto Cherubini

Public space is a space where citizens of any class, age, race and profession have the right to enter and frequent without any restrictions.  Until now, urban planning experts in Iran have not paid sufficient attention to the value and importance of these spaces in shaping urban society.  Of course, research has been done, which mainly concerned the definitions and characteristics of public spaces from an urban design perspective.  Therefore, the importance of public spaces in shaping civil society has been less discussed; on the contrary, it has mainly been sociologists and economists who have paid attention to this issue.  Investigating the role of public spaces in the formation of civil society from the perspective of urban planning is a matter of crucial importance.  When we talk about public space in cities and its relationship with civil society, two types of space concepts are formed in a person's mind.  The first is public space in its physical sense, which includes parks, streets, squares, markets and other public places.  The second is actually mental space that goes back to the scope of political freedoms and the space that exists for the formation of civil organisations independent of government.

Hassan Osanloo

All projects received within the call for vision “New public space for contemporary Iranian cities. Challenges between tradition and innovation”, an initiative promoted by Iran_Lab | Shared Research and Teaching (scientific
coordinator A. De Cesaris), present interesting viewpoints, all of high quality, regarding the modernization of elements of the Iranian tradition in a modern key.
My evaluation was based not only on the aesthetic and formal result but also above all on the integration of the design proposal within the urban context.
Among all the proposals, I identified three guiding themes: the modernization of the Persian garden, the use of rooftops as public space, and the reactivation of courtyards of private buildings into semi-public space.
Although all projects have originally interpreted these themes, my preference falls on the following: "Micro-Urban agricolture" (Shayan Baranian Kasir, Sayede Nazanin Ommi); "The fusion of courtyard and the city" (Mahnush Arbabi, Ghazaleh Eslami); "Tarbiat Modares" (EVENT STUDIO: Bahare Peyhani, Arezoo Izadyari Aghmiuni).

Adding a special mention for the project "Kushk".

Marsia Marino