Building No. 23 is an apartment in Mahmoudieh district of Tehran, which was designed in 2014 and its construction was completed in 2018. The overall volume of the building - which is the common cube in the typology of Tehran apartments - is a brick volume, which here with soft lines on the façade and curved surfaces in the corners, establishes a different dialogue with the city.

The architectural idea here goes beyond a single idea based on form or function. In fact, it is a collection of ideas based on an insight derived from the attention to the characteristics of Iranian culture and art, which has been used to create a human architecture in connection with the original qualities of the architecture of this land. The qualities that result from the result of color and materials, light and shadow, spatial connection, harmony, harmony and principles of coexistence between man and nature: brick, turquoise, plant, stone, tile, pattern, color, movement, space, sense, stillness, Watching, inside, outside, silence, sky, light, shadow, purity... and how the combination of these words creates an architectural language to create a living space.

Designing Plaque 23 involved navigating a complex set of expectations: to deliver a high-end residential building that simultaneously responds to Tehran’s chaotic public realm. While the project was commissioned as a private development, it was also implicitly tasked with engaging the city, contributing to the street, and embodying collective identity—all within the constraints of a limited urban plot, tight budget, and regulatory restrictions.

The client’s vision extended beyond conventional residential needs, seeking architectural presence, spatial poetry, and cultural resonance. Balancing artistic ambition with pragmatic demands required constant negotiation, iteration, and a commitment to architectural integrity. Ultimately, the project stands as a response to the unspoken demand for meaning, calm, and public connection in a city that often lacks all three.

The main volume of the building is placed on a base that forms the volume of the ground floor. The ground floor includes the entrance area, lobby, swimming pool and gym. On this floor, direct access to the courtyard, common spaces and apartment units has been created. The pool area floats somewhere between the inside and outside of the building. Light, view and color are the main ingredients of this space.

In conversation with the street, the volume of the ground floor retreats from the main volume and establishes a relationship with the city through the curved brick surface of the surrounding wall. The connection between the main entrance and the street is defined by creating an empty space as an extension of the city in the project land, which is also an accessible space for riding. The red colored brick on the ground floor and in the façade openings, where the transparency, light and suspension between inside and outside create a different quality of spatial communication, have been replaced by turquoise glazed brick. In the walls, giving the third dimension to the openings and turning them into a middle space, continuous porches have been created which, with the edges of green plants, strengthen the depth and quality of the connection between inside and outside.

A longitudinal axis in the plan defines the view and connection between the interior spaces of each apartment. This interface space, whose main function is to pass, has created a connection between different spaces with different sizes and functions. It is through this central space that the internal and external views and the separation of public and private spaces of the house are controlled.

An effort has been made to make the building, instead of being an expression of architecture, a space for human expression; for the presence of man, and his connection with man, with the city and with nature; And let it be an opportunity mixed with a sense of familiarity and fantasy in the space of home as a space of peace, happiness and life.

Plaque 23 explores architecture through multiple layers of scale—each carefully considered to create a meaningful dialogue between the building, its users, and the city.

At the urban scale, the project steps back from the street, using a curved brick wall to establish a gentle, respectful connection with Tehran’s public realm. At the architectural scale, soft edges and volumetric clarity define the building’s presence and rhythm. At the threshold scale, the recessed ground floor becomes a mediating space between city and home, offering a moment of transition and openness. At the human scale, handcrafted materials—curved bricks, turquoise-glazed tiles, wood joinery—invite touch, texture, and intimacy. At the residential scale, a linear axis organizes spatial relationships within each apartment, enhancing flow and privacy. And at the poetic scale, architecture becomes a canvas for memory, color, and light—drawing from Persian culture to create a place of calm, beauty, and rooted identity.

In Plaque 23, scale is not simply a matter of measurement—it is a design tool to shape experience, evoke emotion, and bring architecture into harmony with its cultural and physical context.