We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Seyed Hamed Jafari about their original and creative Residential Building design work. Seyed Hamed Jafari is an award-winning architectural designer, that makes our world a better place with their original residential building works.
Seyed Hamed Jafari ("SHJ") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Rouzan Residential Building. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
SHJ : Client asked to realize her childhood home memory combined with advanced architectural designs. Her childhood home was a traditional Iranian house with a fountain centering the yard surrounded by gardens; different rooms circularly faced the fountain providing a sense of inclusion; each room had a wooden framed window made of smaller identical windows producing symmetrical shapes once sunlight passing through. The inspiration was to create a signature canopy window pattern designs derived from her childhood memory by implementing the signature designs onto key compartments of the building.
SHJ : My main focus was to achieve my client’s approval so that she enjoys living her childhood memories while the building also entailed high technological and modern features.
SHJ : Few of the condos were designated for sale and few of them for my client herself to reside.
SHJ : My goal always has been to draw the first draft of the design as soon as possible so that I can receive my client’s feedback right away. So here, after the first draft, I created a 3D render for my client based off her feedback so that she can visualize herself walking through the doors and hallways. Once I got the approval that the design has met her criteria completely, then I revise the design in much more details. Here, from initial draft to the completed design version, it took me less than 1 month.
SHJ : I had two main obligations to meet when designing this project. One, to meet my client’s childhood memory visualization and two, to create a design that attracts buyers too.
SHJ : I tried to design this work with cost-efficient, traditional touches and local material such as bricks, wooden work, and canopies reminisce of historic architectural tales with modern design concepts. It had to harmonize with the texture of the neighborhood as well.
SHJ : Yes, couple of traditional designs in my hometown Esfahan.
SHJ : I was aiming for middle class customers with family size ranging from 4 to 6 per household.
SHJ : Accessibility, simplicity, cost-efficient, yet elegant format so that middle class families can afford it.
SHJ : Rouzan means tiny light beams referring to the sunlight reflection through each canopy windows
SHJ : Sketchup, AutoCAD, Photoshop, and Lumion.
SHJ : Rouzan allows its residences to experience two lifestyles, a traditional Iranian house of the past and a modern apartment of the present. For designing of the facade through interiors and rooftop with water fountain, garden, and BBQ, same traditional bricks, semi-transparent bricks, wooden canopies with niche decorative and intrusive cavities were implemented to resemble traditional Iranian houses. On the other hand, the facade and interior designs were refined with the advanced architectural touches to appeal for prospective buyers as well.
SHJ : I utilized great deal of insights from my colleague engineers, my wife, Mr. Shafiee, and Mr. Nillipour.
SHJ : Electrical convertible canopy windows, parking lot entrance door, interim, hidden cameras, rooftop garden water drop system to avoid excessive water usage and more.
SHJ : Distinct angles of illumination patterns for openings in the facade, canopy windows, the building entrance as well as analysis of solar energy absorption utilizing empirical formulas and simulator software according to the climate of Isfahan city were among major researches for this project.
SHJ : Designing the signature canopy windows to be efficient and to increase privacy of the residences, meeting logistical guidelines, and finally achieving clients investment budget were among the most difficult challenges to overcome. On one hand, guidelines restricted the building height, the facade design, and rooftop water fountain; on the other hand, material selections were limited due to the clients low budget. Nonetheless, the design had to be appealing for prospective buyers.
SHJ : 18.Because I had multiple responsibilities in this project which allowed me to pay extra attention to every single detail even during the execution stage, I wanted to gauge the performance forecast of the realized result in comparison with international designs.
SHJ : Its hard to pinpoint specific lessons, but I know I learnt a lot from anyone who worked hard to complete this project from designers, construction workers, painters, and more. As I mentioned earlier, I was the project supervisor as well and thus got to interact with lots of hard-working people and learnt a lot from each other specialties.
