Context & Initial Reading of the Building

To understand a city, one must walk through its back alleys. Every building carries fragments of history — color, material, light, shadow, memory. The existing house, located in Karim Khan, still retained its architectural identity and remained habitable prior to renovation. The first reading suggested that the building did not require reinvention, but a careful continuation. The design approach therefore leaned toward “designing without redesigning” — keeping what deserved to remain, allowing the building to speak for itself, and adapting it softly to its new life as a gallery.

Design Strategy: Preservation Over Replacement

Instead of imposing a new architectural language, the project sought to reveal the existing character. Original elements were preserved wherever possible — the brickwork, the stair and railing details, the mature cypress in the courtyard. The goal was not to overwrite history, but to extend it, giving the building a second narrative without erasing the first.

Structural Reinforcement & Spatial Reorganization

Technically, the existing masonry structure required reinforcement for its new public function. Three shear walls and seven foundation piles were executed to strengthen the building. Some internal partitions were removed to create depth, continuity, and open spatial flow appropriate for exhibition. The result was a structure that remained true to itself — but more stable, more silent, more capable of hosting art.

Dual Access & Urban Interface

The project was given two entrances, each with a different urban relationship:

Side Entrance (Jamal Alley): Clad in traditional two-tone brick Ablagh, echoing the shared architectural memory of the neighborhood.

Main Entrance (Shiroudi Street): Finished in travertine, where the fifty-year-old cypress stands as a natural landmark and symbol of permanence.

This dual access creates a dialogue between city, gallery, and garden.

From House to Gallery: Light, Silence, Display

With the change of function, most windows were closed to create controlled exhibition walls, except for the opening aligned with the cypress — a framed view that preserves memory and directs the eye to what mattered most. The building became a space of light moderation, visual focus, and calm display — a domestic space transformed, yet still gentle, familiar, and rooted.

Façade, Vegetation & Landscape Memory

The courtyard vegetation — same age as the house — became part of the architectural identity. The aim was to bring the garden to the façade, allowing greenery to reclaim the building. Existing climbing plants (Wisteria & Jasmine) were retained as primary façade elements, supplemented with Dutch Jasmine to accelerate growth. Here, the greenery is not decorative — it is history made visible.

Simplicity, Authenticity, Continuity

In the end, our decision was a simple one: the building should remain what it always was — understated, honest, enduring. The old staircase and railings, the two-tone brick, the travertine, the cypress and the pomegranate tree… all were preserved so the house could tell its story again, dressed in a new skin.

This project was not an effort to change the building’s identity, but to let its life continue.