Villa in the Desert
Location: Kashan Region, Iran
Architect: Firouz Firouz
Material: Rammed Earth
Design date: 2002
Built area: 250m2
Design Collaborator: Ali Torabi
Story:
“Villa in the Desert" is a prototype of a villa in the deserts of Iran.
A large part of the Iranian plateau has arid climate. Many areas in these landscapes are estimated to be uninhabitable according to today’s environmental assessment methods; yet, the history of civilization in these areas goes back for thousands of years. Throughout history, Iranians have responded to sustainable design challenges in Iran's diverse climates by providing various types of architecture that have evolved over time in this territory. In the desert, these responses are mainly represented in the form of introvert architecture with central courtyards.
“Villa in the desert” responds to the challenges of desert dwelling with simple, modern language while adapting itself to its environment like a living organism.
Hypothetical location of the site is the Kashan region and outside the urban context. Altitude is 1000 meters above sea level.
Sitting on the edge of the desert, this villa connects to the landscape through panoramic views, witnessing the passage of time at the rhythm set by nature: extended horizon, the dry, silence, the sizzling sun; deep shadows and ivory white light.
The main challenge is maintaining the indoor temperature while providing air circulation throughout the building, considering the need for insulation due to extreme, fluctuating temperatures.
A block-like shape defines the exterior of the design, where concentric layers of materials appropriately insulate the walls according to their location relative to the sun. This concept of layering in the external skin manifests as a glass house in a mud shell. At the east, south and west façade, the outer wall, made of rammed earth, is pierced by small variable openings. The middle layer is a covered corridor run by a small water channel. And the inside wall is made of movable glass louvers. The north wall is framed by large glass openings.
Sitting on a north-south axis, the building can be configured to make the most of an east-west airflow while avoiding direct rays of the sun inside.
Like a nomadic tent woven from goat wool the mud wall lets the light pierce through small openings showering the dark space with shafts of light in which you see the dance of particles.
The hot desert wind passing through the openings reaches the shadowed area, cools down over the water channel, and then it is dragged through the moving louver windows inside.
Ventilation is created on both the eastern and western perforated walls, pulling the air through a corridor passing across and out the interior courtyard, cooled by the greenery there.
The central space itself with its curved ceiling and open plan design is bathed in the lights coming in through the central courtyard.
Three major openings frame large views extending to the infinite: The south iwan[i], the north entrance bay window looking into the north yard, and the light-well of the central courtyard which opens towards the sky.
The rooftop is protected from direct sunlight by a layer of inverted clay flower pots. The pots trap large volumes of air underneath and act as a thermal insulator. A gravel bedding underneath, allows the rainwater to flow on a thin waterproofed layer and be stored beneath the courtyard.
In overall, “villa in the desert” is a refuge that provides ample possibilities for resilience in different weather extremes common to arid desert climates while creating dynamic and playful connections between the inside space and the surrounding landscape.
[i] In Iranian architecture, a semi closed space walled on three sides, with one end entirely open to the landscape.
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