Kohan Ceram Central Office Building Mixed-Use by Hooman Balazadeh Wins the Golden A' Design Award in Architecture, Building and Structure Design

Hooman Balazadeh honored for architecture, building and structure design by the international grand jury of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 23, 2021 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Golden A' Design Award in the Architecture, Building and Structure Design category for Kohan Ceram Central Office Building Mixed-Use by Hooman Balazadeh, designed for HOOBA Design Group. The recognition forms part of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

About the Golden A' Design Award

The Gold A' Design Award is granted to designs that demonstrate a high level of innovation and a significant impact on their intended audience. Recognized as a major achievement by the A' Design Awards, these designs are characterized by their visionary approach and the exceptional skill of their creators. Winners of the Gold A' Design Award are noted for their ability to push the envelope in art, science, design, and technology, delivering solutions that not only meet but exceed expectations. These designs serve as benchmarks for excellence, encouraging further innovation and inspiring future generations of designers.

More About Kohan Ceram Central Office Building Mixed-Use

Kohan Ceram Central Office Building is the headquarters of a brick manufacturing company in Tehran. The building contains a showroom, a sales office and a guest unit. A special brick block was developed for the project, combining industrial brick with cast glass. Each block is 19 centimetres thick and holds a thermal insulation layer between two brick layers. The block serves as masonry, finish and insulation at the same time. The same block forms the exterior facade and shapes the interior spaces, bringing daylight inside while protecting privacy.

Award Record

This recognition makes Hooman Balazadeh a winner of 1 A' Design Award.

About the A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award

The A' Architecture Design Award is an international architectural design competition recognizing good architectural designs by best architects worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to architectural design studios, building contractors, structural engineering firms and architecture and design consultants from all countries. Entries typically include skyscrapers, museums, residential buildings, commercial complexes, educational institutions and religious structures. Awarded architectural projects are published at https://designers.org/design-category/architecture

About A' Design Award & Competition

A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://designers.org/117247
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/117247
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!117247
Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/298090

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: Kohan Ceram Central Office Building Mixed-Use
Function: Mixed-Use
Category: Architecture, Building and Structure Design
Discipline: Spatial Design
Industry: Architecture
Colors: Peru, Coral, Sienna, Chocolate and Black
Images: 5
Client: HOOBA Design Group

The Recognition

Laureate: Hooman Balazadeh
Country: Turkiye
Recognition: Golden A' Design Award
Edition: 2020 - 2021
Design ID: #117247

Credits

Team: Parima Jahangard, Parima Jahangard - Mohsen Tahmasebi – Mostafa Dadashpour, Mohsen Tahmasebi, Bahram Afsari- Mohsen Tahmasebi, Mehran Alinezhad, Shafagh kia- Maryam Eghlimi and Iman Ilbeigi
Image Credits: Parham Taghioff Deed Studio

Design Details

Unique Properties: Is it possible to unify the urban scenery by minimizing the formic expression of buildings as singular objects and emphasizing on the city as a whole? Unitizing different elements of the building including walls, windows, doors, etc., as well as reducing the variety of building materials could somehow address the so called issues. The project was designed as the headquarters for Kohan Ceram Brick Manufacturing Company. Preserving the existing concrete structure, it was decided to Design a special brick (by architect) to represent the factory.
Inspiration: How can a single building form strategic changes to the urban scenery? Is it possible to unify the urban scenery by minimizing the formic expression of buildings as singular objects and emphasizing on the city as a whole? Unitizing different elements of the building including walls, windows, doors, etc., as well as reducing the variety of building materials could somehow address the so called issues.
Research: There was a glass workshop in a close distance from the Kohan Ceram factory. This was the spark of a new idea which was to explore the possibilities of solid brick to be combined with cast glass. We started the experiment with direct casting of melted glass into the fire resistant brick blocks. A number of trial and errors resulted in a failed prototype with cracks in the brick block after the glass was cooled. Therefore, we decided to cast the glass separately and stick it inside the brick wholes using a special glue.
Challenge: As mentioned in the previous section, the most challenging obstacle in this project was to come up with the optimum solution in the making of the brick-glass block. Many trial and error procedures were conducted in the making of the prototypes. The success of this time consuming procedure was realized with the help of the great teams working on both the brick and the glass components of the block.
Realization and Technology: The story of Kohan Ceram building was started when a new modular creature was formed called the “Spectacled Brick”. This little guy had transparency and solidity in one piece and could see the city from within. It worked as the masonry, the finishing, and the insulation at the same time but still wanted to be more than that. The Spectacled Brick not only formed the exterior façade, but also transformed from a surface into a volume which extended into the building in the form of modular greenspaces. Replacing ordinary walls and windows, these modules defined different spaces in the building.
Operation and Interaction: The spectacled brick integrated building qualities such as interior and exterior, introversion and extroversion, façade and space, transparency and solidity, natural and artificial lighting, to create a new phenomenon which not only carries features form both components, but also introduces new values to the system. Therefore, design challenges were resolved by merging these dual components into unique elements. It also used this homogeneity to address the programmatic requirement of the project which included both commercial and residential spaces. It tried to expand the commercial aspect of the brick showroom to the exterior and eventually to the city.
Project Duration and Location: The project started in March 2016 in Tehran and finished in August 2019.
Specifications: The brick block used in this project is a combination of industrial brick and cast glass. The building envelope consists of two layers of brick-glass block with a thermal insulation layer in between. The overall thickness of the block is 19cm. anti-moisture silica gel balls were placed in between the two brick layers to prevent condensation on the glass.
Keywords: Kohan Ceram Building , kohan ceram Factory , Kohan Ceram Brick Manufacturing Company , Kohan Ceram , Kohan Ceram Central Office