studio chahar
Location: Tehran, Iran
Museum Design - Adaptive Intervention
2022 to present
“In every corner and nook, there were scattered pieces of wood, and they smelled so nice! I wished I had three wooden shelves to store my belongings. One for books, one for little things, and the last one I'd keep above all to mark things I didn't want my sister to touch. “
From the story "Jashn-e-Farokhdeh."
Jalal house museum depicts the early life of the well-known Iranian novelist, short-story writer, translator, philosopher and socio-political critic, Jalal Al Ahmad, in his childhood house, which is located in the District 12 of Tehran, adjacent to The Grand Bazaar of Tehran. Our design approach is inspired by Jalal’s writing style and sociopolitical view of the world. Jalal wrote in an honest, proactive and precise way and tried to remove prepositions, compounds and metaphors, and only keep the essence in his prose, as far as it was feasible. Jalal’s art of writing was committed to social change and equity. His prominent work of ethnography brings light to the everyday life of Iranians in his era.
Jalal was a maker himself and created furniture pieces with wood and metal. Inspired by his resourceful approach in writing and making, the display showcases in this museum are designed in a modular form, to create simplicity and clarity. The display cases, will be used to exhibit handwritten notes and personal belongings of Jalal Al-e Ahmad and his family. The museum's artworks will form a continuous collage, narrating Jalal's life, depicting his childhood, adolescence, youth and some of his ethnographic research.
The museum collage will depict the calligraphy works of Haj Ahmad, Jalal’s father, and also Jalal Al-e Ahmad's handwritten notes and photographs. It will also depict the history of the house using the maps of the neighborhood, and how the house was an integrated part of oldest part of the city of Tehran. A few workshops with the neighborhood residents are planned to ideate about the format of the museum collages.