In 2018, a group of French architects visited the Aban house project, what became important from that day, was not the dialogue between us and the French architects, but the dialogue between us and the tour leader of this group, because at that time he and his wife were planning to build a single house in a part of this city. The next day, the conversation with all the members of this family continued at Aban’s house, and it was agreed that we would build a house on the land that belongs to this family, in Jolfa neighborhood of Isfahan close to Vank Church. A house that is a repeatition of Aban’s house, but based on a different story and built in a different place.
This issue brought a new challenge for us, who were both architects and users of Aban House, to be able to create the same spatial quality, complexity of communication, mass and space organization, spatial hierarchy in another land and for a family different from ours. Therefore, we tried to return to the concepts that were used in the design of the Aban house and received the attention of the employer, and this time, by reorganizing these concepts, we will achieve a new space.
Since the rules and regulations of the municipality in Isfahan did not allow us to create an opening on the eastern side of the land and we were limited by the neighbors’ buildings from the north and west, so in addition to the yard in the southern part, according to the same rules we were required to create, we organized another courtyard in the middle part of the eastern side in such a way that it can be connected with all three levels of the ground floor, first and underground, and in addition to providing light to the northern parts, it is possible to be under the blue sky in all three.
In a way, Jolfa house has a common DNA with Aban house, but by creating a completely different narrative that tries to turn the house into a space for peace in another corner of this city, outside of today’s paradigm of housing in Iran.