Dwelling the Absent: Residential Apartment for Maryam and Faraj Shiraz | Alborz Mohammadi/Keramati Architect

Dwelling the Absent: Residential Apartment for Maryam and Faraj Shiraz, Situated in a prime location in Shiraz, directly facing the university’s green campus, this residence for Maryam and Faraj responds to a unique set of opportunities and constraints. The site offers a rare, uninterrupted northern view, yet its narrow 12-meter width and the dense urban fabric imposed strict spatial limitations. The design process became an act of negotiation — not only with the site and municipal regulations, but also with environmental forces and the personal desires of the clients.

The project took shape as a direct result of these invisible yet powerful forces acting upon a predefined mass. Like sculptural pressure points, zoning laws, land boundaries, sunlight orientation, and the clients’ daily rituals collectively influenced the architecture. These elements did not merely inform the design — they carved into it. Negative spaces emerged not as voids, but as purposeful absences, shaped by the tension between constraint and intention.

To address the dual pull of the northern landscape and the southern light, a duplex unit was positioned on the first floor, allowing the couple to inhabit both orientations. Two separate living areas and four rooms unfold across two levels: a sunlit master bedroom to the south, two guest rooms facing the lush northern view, and a secluded studio for Maryam. The spatial arrangement prioritizes fluid movement between public and private, light and shadow, openness and enclosure.

Below, the parking level—traditionally an afterthought—was integrated into the spatial language of the home. By opening it toward the main courtyard and introducing a large reflecting pool, this subterranean space becomes a luminous threshold between the ground and the interior. Tall northern windows frame the greenery beyond, while narrow southern apertures draw in the warmth of Shiraz’s sun, enhancing the living experience.

In this way, the project is not simply a constructed object, but a mass formed by subtraction — a dwelling shaped by what is taken away, by the pressures it withstands, and by the absences it honors.

Project Info
Architects: Alborz Mohammadi / Keramati Architect
Country: Iran, Shiraz
Area: 1140 m²
Year: 2019
Photographs: Navid Atrvash
Construction: Mokhtasat/Farajollah Mohammadi