The Polyphonic Embassy - Thesis - (Earned Chair’s Thesis Award for Outstanding Artistry in a Final Exhibit 2017 Showcased in SCAD Building Facilities)
Historical Context
After the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, diplomatic relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America ceased. The hostage crisis was a diplomatic standoff between both countries where fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage after a group of radicals occupied the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
While relations remained strained since the incident, in 2015, renewed conversations between the two countries resulted in a nuclear deal between Iran and the USA. The nuclear deal created hope in the Iranian social and political atmosphere that a normal relationship between Iran and the USA is possible. However, the political situation remains fragile. Due to this situation, the building illustrates the absence of diplomatic relations. My thesis on the embassy is a response to the lack of diplomacy and dialogue, proposing a future democratic Iran and renewed relations
Philosophical context
My theoretical foundation for this project is Polyphony (Many-Voiced, Dialogism). Polyphony is a philosophy by a Russian philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin, inspired by Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novels. It includes the diversity of points of views and voices, based on the idea of the relationship between the “I” and the “Other.”
This idea can be represented as the Architectural Doppelgänger, a position that maintains the idea of originality as a disciplinary foundation. In other words, doppelgängers are exotic; they resemble the “I” and yet are threateningly “Other.” Human fear of something unoriginal – or a copy – is akin to the fear of the “Other.” The feeling of unease occurs when you experience something familiar as suddenly unfamiliar, or something commonplace seen in a way that makes it suddenly strange. This feeling is disconcertingly similar to the self but entirely separate from it, as with mirrors, shadows, reflections, and twins.
Original
Prior to the Islamic revolution, Iran maintained an embassy in Washington, D.C.; yet, both governments closed their embassies 38 years ago following the hostage crisis. Previously, the Iranian embassy was a showcase for Persian culture and can now return to the role of a social educator. Spaces and elements of the old embassy have architectural values and can adapt to renovation, conservation, through the inherent high value of curiosity, and aesthetic appreciation.
Inversion
The new architectural intervention will act as the doppelgänger of the original—an inverted version—both as the mirror and mold for the original: a new embassy that uses the original while further expanding it.
Copy and Original
The Original Embassy (“I” or “Other?”) and the Copy of the Embassy (“I” or “Other?”) erase the threshold between the “Other” and “I.” The question becomes which one is the original: is it the form or the mold that imitates the form?
The Kissing Domes
Based on Bakhtin’s theory, the nature of life is polyphonic, but there are few moments when “I” and “Other” can endorse each other completely. The kissing domes of the embassies celebrate this moment. The only intersection between the original and the copy is a single moment: a kiss at the top of the original dome, where the copy dome serves as the starting point for the inversion of forms.
Original Iranian Embassy in Washington, D.C
The Inversion, the Iranian Embassy for Future
Showcased in SCAD Building Facilities
The kissing Domes of the Iranian Embassy for Future
Showcased in SCAD Building Facilities
