New Plasco Competition

In the first, a pure and silent volume with the footprint of the destroyed building is split open by a symbolic rift. Light escapes through the opened surfaces at its corners, and behind a generous setback a tall opening draws the surrounding shopfronts into an inner urban space with the atmosphere of Tehran’s historic passages: greenery, paving, lamps and places to gather.

The rift rises to the skyline of the neighbouring buildings and frees one floor of the tower for a memorial to the firefighters who lost their lives. Transparent lifts carry visitors from the inner pedestrian street to the memorial, which sits in line with the remaining roof of the old building’s northern wing. A hanging garden climbs the northern face, recalling the gardens, among them the Hesam-ol-Saltaneh garden, that once occupied the site.

The second proposal treats Plasco as a national symbol rather than only a commercial centre. Half of the fifth-floor gallery becomes five suspended ramps, each 35 metres long, forming a dynamic gallery on the way into the main gallery and the shops. A convex brick wall beside the ramps echoes the traditional brick fabric around the site, and a pool of water marks the presence of the firefighters: crossing it to reach the entrance, visitors see its reflections move across the ramps and the brick wall.