Bank melli complex

The picture of classical Modern Architecture in Ahvaz

Bank Melli complex is one of the incomparable cases of complex buildings of first Pahlavi's kingdom. The most known building of this complex, is ″3 goosh″. According to some documents, this complex is built between 1313-18 and has a special architecture. "3 goosh″ that actually was the administrative building of this complex, is built on a triangle shaped ground that is a problem in a normal designing process. But in this special case, a smart distribution of filled and empty spaces and the use of geometry in the plan, has created some intact and brilliant internal spaces. The building is designed in two floors and has an entrance hall, an amphitheater and some various rooms . About 4 years ago , this building was using as a “Faculty of Literature” but now it’s empty and under renovation. Architect inspired the doors, windows and the proportions system of the central hall of Persian classical architecture, but in the other spaces, absolutely we see proportions and distribution system of Iran's modern architecture in the first Pahlavi's era, which can be seen in some similar cases of it in Tehran, Isfahan and other cities. But the special and attractive case of this complex that maybe we can't see something like that in the other contemporary cases, is its houses. These houses, that nowadays some of them are remained and some are destroyed, are a compound of some tall and one floored residential buildings. The whole residential complex is organized around a central open space that all of neighbor structures have a way to it by a special yard. The tall buildings are different in dimensions and space types. In a total classification, they are some 3 floored structures that their first floor is allocated to public and the second floor is allocated to private spaces (bath and rooms). In the floors, by making the spaces private, the building's mass has reduced and the volume of open and half-open spaces have increased, The space in the third floor mostly has allocated to the terrace. The connection between the three floors is provided by a stair box fenced by an octagon tower. Thus, each building's yard is defined as some arena spaces with hierarchy, by walls, pond and some other landscape elements. One floored buildings are so simpler cases that their yard has located in front of the house as an open space and internal are less complexity. Like most buildings in Ahvaz , at the first Pahlavi's kingdom , English and German architects are the common guesses about this Complex ;Especially rumors about the presence of Germans in the design of this valuable asset are discussed. Perhaps this is due to the effects that Germans have had on the establishment of the national bank and its branches. At the beginning ،due to the lack of Iranian familiarity whit banking for the banks administration ،German bankers were hired to run the bank. At that time, the head of the Ahvaz branch was a German named Hartman'‘. It seems that this has caused the German names to be always repeated as the designers. But the document that the writers have achieved in their recent researches can express a new hypothesis about this. This document is related to the biography of an Armenian architect named Christopher Taderian which is inserted in the Armenian-Iranian encyclopedia. In the early decades of the 20th ،he mastered architectural professionally at Le Corbusier office. In 1928 he returned to Iran within half of a century architectural and artistic activity ،left many projects , such as national bank branch in Ahvaz ،Froozgar hospital ،a large number of office buildings ، commercial passages and residential houses. according to the current building of national bank in Ahvaz is most likely of Foroughi's projects , the building mentioned in the above document should be the previous building of the national bank – 3Goosh.

References

Searching for Urban Identity of Ahvaz”, Dr Roohallah Mojtahed Zadeh , Dr Zahra Namavar

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