700 ROOM HOTEL TEHRAN

Initially, Tange was assigned to propose a design for the political and ad- ministrative center of Tehran in the Abbas Hills. Next to Tange, another prominent architect, Louis Kahn was asked for a proposal. Kahn’s style was more in favor of the King while Tange’s architecture was pleasing to the Queen. After they had presented their proposals, The monarchy asked them to make a combined pro- posal, with Arata Isozaki as leader. A few months into the collaboration Louis Kahn died and the project was assigned to a British studio.

The site was supposed to be in the corner of the Farah Park, named af- ter the Empress of Iran. When the task was given to design the Hotel, keeping in mind three premises; first, a good communication with the park, secondly, to organize the layout accommodating two entrance located in the two important avenues next to the site, and finally, to create good views to the mountains sur- rounding Tehran.

When Tange organized the program he decided to place the restaurants, stores, and meeting halls at the bottom of the complex, and the residential rooms above, allowing 32 rooms per floor. The staircases and the elevators were placed in the middle of the triangle-shaped building. The triangle shape was chosen to fulfill the third premise and give the hotel the best views of the Alborz mountains.

Kenzo Tange was a Japanese architect, who lived from September 4, 1913 until March 22, 2005. In 1987 he won the Pritzker prize for architecture. Be- sides being one of the most honoured Japanese architects, he is also a teacher, writer, and urban planner.

He is from Imabari, which is located on Shikoku Island. The biggest in- fluence on his choice to become an architect was Le Corbusier’s work. In 1935 he enrolled as a student and followed the architecture courses. He graduated in 1938 and worked for Kunio Maekawa until 1941. Later on, in 1946 he started work- ing at the University of Tokyo as an assistant manager.

He received worldwide attention with his “plan for Tokyo”. Which was meant to extend the city out over the bay, with man-made islands. He was in charge of the revival of Hiroshima after the bombings in WWII. Designing the Hi- roshima Peace Centre in 1946, showing both an understanding of the traditions, and simultaneously marking the beginning of the modern style in Japan.

Tange was one of the first in the metabolism movement. Metabolism came to life after the second world war in Japan and focused mainly on housing issues. It is the Japanese avant-garde movement. In his mind, the standard fixed housings was a thing of the past, and thought the modern housing should be based on large scale, flexible and expandable structures.

Tange completed his doctorate in 1959, focussing on the urban layout and how the movement of people is affected daily, called “Spatial Structure in a Large City”. As a response to this, he created the Plan for Tokyo.

The main concept of all the projects done by Tange, “Architecture must have something that appeals to the human heart, but even then, basic forms, spaces and appearances must be logical. Creative work is expressed in our time as a union of technology and humanity. The role of tradition is that of a catalyst, which furthers a chemical reaction, but is no longer detectable in the end result. Tradition can, to be sure, participate in a creation, but it can no longer be creative itself.” - Kenzo Tange.

Next to all of his architectural achievements, Tange has also been a guest speaker and lecturer at many universities in America.

In 1973 Tange and Kahn were invited to start the proposal for the Abbas Abad project. In the same year the Vietnam War ended, and Nixon accepted the responsibility for the Watergate scandal. Furthermore in 1973 the fourth biggest Arab- Israeli conflict began as Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked Israel. In 1974 Nixon was charged with three articles of impeachment and resigned from the US presidency. After tough debates and negotiations in 1977 Nuclear-prolifera- tion pact, curbing spread of nuclear weapons, signed by 15 countries, including the U.S and USSR. The biggest reason why the project was never built was the Islamic Revolution in 1979. This revolution overthrows the Pahlavi dynasty under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, replacing the government by an Islamic republic under the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, one of the leaders of the revolu- tion. The revolution was supported by different islamist and leftist organizations and student movements.

The Hotel Tehran was going to be located in the south-east of Laleh Park in Tehran’s city cen- ter. It was going to have thirty floors and 700 rooms. The volumetry was composed of pure geome- tries, extruding a triangle for its taller part. The façade was made of glass to take the maximum of the Alborz mountains views, located in the north.

The reception had a glass façade too, creating a visual continuity with Laleh Park. On the con- trary, the conference rooms were located underground. Tange used the triangular shape and the glass facade to accomplish harmony with the park and the surrounding environment. He also includ- ed a Japanese garden in the north part of the project to unify it with the park.

When composing the renders for the assignment we decided to set the views strategically from the street and the park, to show the interaction of the building with the surroundings.

The North-West view shows how the Hotel would have inter- acted with the organic forms. Creating a clear contrast with the natural flow of the park.

On the other hand, the West view shows the skyline and how it would have continued with the existing lines of the neighboring build- ings. The view shows a coherence with the composition of the street and the typology of the buildings, accomplishing a timeless design.