Aria Residential Building / Pargar Architecture and Design Studio
Text description provided by the architects. Aria residential building is located in the district of Farmanieh in the north of Tehran which is a green area with great views. The site access is easy due to the potential of being surrounded by 3 streets and having a neighborhood just on the east side. So, the design team decided to make two different access to the building, one for the parking at the south and the pedestrian access in the north. This placement provided the proper daylight for the building.
The plot area is 555 sqm and the total area is 4270 sqm on 15 floors. this building consists of 10 single-unit residential floors with 240 sqm area, the ground floor includes a lobby and gym center, floors -1 to -3 include parking lots, each with a separate entrance and ramp due to the land limitation, floor level -4 includes a swimming pool, spa center, and a meeting room. The Green Roof complex design strategy was to prepare panorama views of the surrounding hillsides in a warm sitting area. Residential plans include two different types, which differ in the placement of the kitchen and living room and their circulations. In type A, the living room is more private. One of the main challenges in the design process was the scale of the building envelope considering the width and height which resulted in a tall narrow building.
The placement of the main living areas on the south section, helped us to have integrated space in the south facade which provided wide openings. Moving away from the more traditional all-glass high rises in the city, the team decided to bring quality and depth to the urban facade. Employing an innovative approach to materials and construction, the building’s distinctive facade consists of the double-skin facade in the living areas.
All the exposed concrete panels have been constructed on-site and this was an exciting experience of producing facade materials on the building site. In the basement levels, a small workshop was established, consisting of mixing machines, vibrating tables, and a small laboratory for mixing design, and through different procedures regarding mixing methods, and their vibration time, we achieved the desired result in quality and design. These pieces were produced in 6 types and consisted of 18,000 pieces. On the western wall, part of these tiles was installed with mortar, and part of them was installed with a separate structure in a dry installation.
Control of light in the western facade has been achieved by reducing the size of the private space windows and facade panels. As the importance of detail design in this project the double-skin facade section includes circular exposed steel columns in the middle layer, structures for reinforced concrete horizontal beams, and finally, filling tiles between reinforced concrete beams. The second skin facade from north to south has become more transparent in gradient, and the space between the two skins is designed to accommodate the placement of plants and green space.