Iranian Boom

Iranians were especially skilled at designing and building the Boom, a compact type of boat made to survive stormy, windy seas while carrying valuable goods such as spices and carpets. Until recently, marine trade was the main source of income for many coast-dwellers across India, Oman, Kenya, Tanzania and Iran.

Traditional maritime trade has declined in recent centuries with the rise of other forms of trade and the shift of industrial geographies, leaving communities along the Persian Gulf in economic hardship and the precious skills of wooden shipbuilding disappearing.

In November 2011, the traditional skills of building and sailing wooden boats in the Persian Gulf were listed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. This knowledge is threatened with extinction by the wide use of fiberglass and steel vessels.

Studio Chahar is working with the Gouron Rural Cooperative, a company of more than 90 households in the village, to develop a new type of Boom as a passenger ship for sustainable tourism. The Sandbad Boom will host 30 people for cruises and will be managed by locals as a prototype for reviving the wooden ocean vessels of the Persian Gulf. The project aims to preserve the traditional knowledge and techniques of wooden boatbuilding and to attract and train younger boatbuilders.