Tehran – Life Within Walls

Life in Tehran proliferates and thrives in its interiors. When public space is policed and controlled, domestic interiors become art galleries, clubs, cultural centers, workshops, and offices. Interiors cease to be the exclusive domain for individual life and family matters; homes become the spaces in which new forms of collective life are experimented and nurtured, and the battleground for social conflicts and political constituencies. Through its extensive apparatus of drawings, Tehran- Life Within Walls presents an archaeological inquiry into the politics and the ecologies of the interior spaces of the Iranian metropolis, from its foundation as the Iranian capital until today. The book is at the same time an accessible entry point for the study of Tehran and Islamic/Iranian architecture, as well as a methodological experiment for the study of contemporary cities. An appendix of six projects provides an imaginative—yet radically pragmatic—vision for the future of Tehran.