During the last few years, based on general policies concerning Tehran’s development, and with the aim of completing Tehran’s transportation network, several east-west highways have been constructed in the city but the lack of a north -south main access has always been one of the most important deficiencies of the city. To eliminate this shortage and according to Iranian tradition of designing urban compounds, this project tends to engender a coherent urban fabric via taking a vast urban territory under construction. Such an approach prevents sporadic developments.
The implementation of this project would have undeniable consequences on the adjacent urban fabric. On the other hand, for Tehran, Navab would play a more important role than a mere highway. Therefore while designing the facades, it was necessary to take both the formal aspects and the social-economic factors into account.
Though continued along Chamran highway, Navab axis is not expected to exactly act as a highway. Instead the project’s main task is to engender well-defined facades. The overall guideline of the design was to generate coherency in the urban fabric and to diminish the undesirable social and economical side effects of the implementation of this project. In southern sector of the axis (between Helal-Ahmar and Ghale-Morghi street, several roadway bridges had been predicted that would have direct impact on the design of the facades. In order to find the proper strategy leading to desirable urban spaces, three prominent factors: the traffic flow, residential sector and commercial and service facilities had to be taken in to account.
This strategy could be implemented in terms of two different approaches. The first approach was to place the street and commercial and service facilities on a lower level- than their current level- and the residential units had to be placed above them. But the restrictions, induced by the level of the utilities and subterranean water channels and also by several roadway bridges existing in the area ,and the considerable difference between the configuration of the project and the adjacent urban fabric, eventually led to rejecting this solution. Therefore the commercial and service facilities were placed on the present highway level and the residential units were set above them. In this way the commercial and service facilities could easily interact with the road. Considering the presence of the roadway bridges, the new settlement of the residential units seemed to be safer. In other words two structurally and functionally different urban domains were taken in to account. The brick texture of the first and second level, congruent with the adjacent urban fabric, brings about the possibility of defining an urban space that, detached from the traffic flow, acts as a recreational space and serves both the blocks and the adjacent urban fabric. In addition, covering the subject area with blocks of 1-2 story height and deployment of voids inside a dense fabric, contrary to common design methods, has several formal and economical advantages as described above.
The platform- the first level of the compound- is connected to the street via plazas and formally acts like a filter and brings about the possibility for the residential blocks to be deliberately situated in different directions and to have different architectural styles. The presence of this platform prevents the project to have undesirable effects on the adjacent urban fabric.