Project Pardis
Design Contest
In 2021, Alefba Group, along with other Iranian organizations and volunteers in Washington State, conducted a feasibility study for an Iranian Community Center named Pardis. To facilitate this study, Project Pardis established several committees, including the Design Committee.
At the end of 2021, the Project Pardis Design Committee launched a contest, inviting architects to submit their proposed designs for the center. The contest ran from September to November 2021 and attracted over 40 teams. A panel of eight judges, consisting of university professors and industry professionals, meticulously reviewed the submissions. After several weeks of thorough evaluation, the panel selected the 11 best designs. The top three teams were awarded monetary prizes of up to $5,000.
We aspire to turn this shared vision of a community center for Iranians into a reality, with the continued support of organizations and individual donors.
1st Place Winner
“To come up with a conceptual design for Pardis Community Center, we studied the project context in terms of the quadruple bottom line of community well-being: cultural vitality, environmental sustainability, social equity, and economic prosperity. Within each scope, we identified the existing challenges and opportunities and tried to craft a regenerative vision for the project. While pursuing a green building certificate such as LEED or Built Green can help us achieve some of these goals more systematically, our vision for this project goes beyond designing a green building project.”
Team SEPID
- Amir Hosein Parnian
- Mahdi Babaizade
- Hoda Homayouni
- Mohammad Kharrazi
2nd Place Winner
“When it comes to energy-related problems, we consider the part-time usage of the building’s program. Indeed, we decided to divide the entire building into 4 main branches, just like an electronic circuit, it provides us the possibility to unplug the circuit and supply the amount of energy which is needed just for a branch. Our other architectural solution is encouraging users to spend most of their time gathering in the open and semi-open areas which do not have a need a temperature-controlled space. Building adaptation for the handicapped users is provided by the mixture of ramps, lifters, and elevators, so every part of the building is easy to access for them.”
Team MROF
- Mehdi Nikfarjam
- Mohammad Heydari Abhari
3rd Place Winner
“Our Design is a building that combines Iranian architecture with the motifs of Seattle architecture, aiming to spread Iranian art. To achieve this goal, we bring some “wow_ factors” (!). The concept of these factors and the choice of materials are inspired by the “Expo pavilion of Iran” in 1967, and some other buildings in Seattle like “Pacific Science Center” and renovated part of the “Asian art museum”. Furthermore, arches are used in both Iranian ancient architecture and Seattle architecture. To successfully execute this process, we designed some lyrical forms to capture everyone’s interest.”
- Foroozan Almasi
- Ali Razzaghi
- Mahsa Hosseinipour
The Next 8 Distinguished Designs
The team of judges selected the next 8 distinguished teams as well, presented to you below. These teams will be receiving Certifications of Excellence.
Alefba Group had the pleasure of reviewing the works of many talented architects throughout this process. Alefba extends heartfelt thanks to all the participants for their time and effort in this contest and wishes them the best in all their future endeavors.