Esfahan CC

Esfahan Chamber of Commerce

The garden and courtyard are vital strategies for urban development, particularly in the dry climate of the central Iranian plateau. The concept of the “garden” symbolizes an ideal paradise, merging natural and man-made elements .

Safavid Isfahan exemplifies this with its innovative “garden-city” model, which harmonizes the natural axis of the Zayandehrood River with the designed axis of Chaharbagh. The “New Isfahan Chamber of Commerce Center,” situated adjacent to the Isfahan Summit Hall, spans over 35,000 m² and offers a unique chance to reinterpret the “Iranian garden.”

The project begins with the concept of the Iranian garden, but the garden becomes “elevated,” transforming from a “surface” into a “thickness.” In this way, garden evolves in section.

By “hanging the garden,” the ground level of the project is repeated three times below, within, and above the garden area, but organized differently in each case, taking on a distinct nature to meet the functional needs of the third generation of the Chamber of Commerce.

The lower part of the garden acts as a green landscape, where through infiltration and alteration of the topography, the land becomes porous in some areas and swollen in others. This arrangement allows for the organization of “community” activity of the project within the created masses and the spaces between them, resulting in a type of covered park with shading capabilities.

Within the thickness of the hanging garden, which is dedicated to the “networking” functions of project, a grid-like organization emerged, revealing internal courtyards that establish a connection between the underground and the overhead garden.

The surface above the garden is dedicated to events and activities related to the “lobbying” of project, preserving the characteristics of the Iranian garden pavilion while visually intersecting the north-south and east-west axes with the vertical axis of the sky in its atrium.