In 2018, we were asked to design two dining halls for women and men in Isfahan University of Technology.
By examining the context of the project (university) and talking with students (users), we found that all the buildings of the university, with a modernist approach, are just spaces to meet the needs of students and professors, relying on functions such as educational, administrative, dormitory, etc. It has brought, whether the architecture and the buildings or the functions inside them, it lacks any intermediate space for what can become the production of social interactions between users.
Therefore, by changing the title of the project from “University of Technology Food Complex” to “University of Technology Student Neighborhood”, we tried to provide a space that, while providing quality and diverse services, will become a neighborhood belonging to students, so students and Professors enjoy eating and drinking together, so it provides a platform to increase social interactions in order to reproduce the social capital of the university.
Therefore, the project plan goes beyond the production of two separate dining halls for ladies and gentlemen, which are considered based on the rules and regulations of the university, and tries to create an arena for students to attend by creating a semi-open space. Therefore, it distances itself from the modernist structure of the university and creates an organic neighborhood in the heart of the university by simple cell proliferation and expansion on the surface.
Perhaps it can be said that the only building that remains in the minds of every student of the university from 60 years ago to today is the hall building, which was designed and built by the late Iranian architect Ali Sardar Afkhami, this octagonal building with a portico around it is formed from the semicircular arcs, becomes an icon for it in the center of the university, therefore, in the design of this project by using the arch on the one hand, we seek to reproduce this colorful mental image and on the other hand, by adding it to this Cubic structure, we try to refine the space and create a fluid structure.