Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 2, Issue 2, February 2014

ISSN 2345-2633

Survey of Farmanfarmaian's Both Historicist and

Modernist Attitudes on the Spatial Setting and
Visual Body of Carpet Museum
Koorosh Attarian, Kourosh Momeni Dehaghi, Ebrahim Heydari, Maral Rahmani

Abstract— Abdulaziz Farmanfarmaian historicist perspectives on spatial and physical structure of Carpet Museum have had various
effects. These effects coincided with modern architecture's beginning pioneered architects of the second generation’s acquaintance,
including Abdul Aziz Farmanfarmaian, with fundamental principles of this architectural style. The value of Iran's carpet craft and its high
position in the world, made a group of experts to offer the suggestion of establishing Carpet Museum of Iran to grant authorities. Tehran
Carpet Museum was started to construct in the northwest side of Laleh Park in 1961, on a land with area of 12,000 square meters, and
after a 15-year delay in construction, was opened in 1977. Abdul Aziz Farmanfarmaian, architect of this magnificent architectural
monument, was one of the second generation leading architects. These groups of architects influenced of west culture civilization, Iranian
historic heritage (with highlighted role of pre-Islam architecture) Data used in this study was obtained through librarical and field research.
Data analysis demonstrated that the architect of carpet museum, used historical perspective for designing the exterior framework of the
building, specifically in façade moldings and ornamentations but this idea is not included in the museum spatial layout. However it is
noticeable that the architect had given his modern attitude to this monumental museum objectively, which is the result of long history of
museums' function in west. The main purpose of this paper is to recognition the architectural characteristics of carpet museum and the
effect of architect's attitude on it.

Index Terms— Farmanfarmaian, Carpet Museum, Carpet Loom Historicity Introversion, Light, Modernist, Second Generation Pioneering
Architects.

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1 INTRODUCTION

C ARPET is one of the most dynamic discursive systems of

Iranian Art (Shaeiri, 69:1388). Iranian carpets have an im-
portant part in luxuries of royal life in history and for this
purpose, this craft attracted foreigner visitors and tourists in
centuries. From fifteenth AD centuries onwards, Iranian car-
pet craft adored and praised by western countries. Moreover,
Persian rugs were the most spectacular present that passen-
gers could easily bring along. These handicrafts’ beauty and
glory as a presents from Iran, were revealed the insignificancy
of western carpets (Pope, 2010: 8).
Due to The importance of Iranian carpets and its significant
position in the world, which have mentioned above, a group
of experts and researchers of carpet in the early seventies pro-
posed the establishment of Carpet Museum of Iran to authori-
ties. The main primary reasons for the establishment of this
building can be mentioned as follows:
• the carpet factories establishment and commissioning and
investors' profits
• Eliminate cultural-artistic aspects of this industry
• Adopting wrong policies towards the advancement of tech-
————————————————
 Ph.D. Student of Architecture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Email Adderss: Attariank@gmail.com (Corresponding Author)
 Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning, Faculty of
JondiShapur University of Technology, Dezful, Iran.Email Adderss:
k_momeni@jsu.ac.ir
 Architecture Graduate Student of Architecture, JondiShapur University of
Technology, Dezful, and Iran.Email Adderss:
Ebrahim.heidari.pgu@gmail.com Email Address
 Undergraduate Degree of Architecture Technology, Azad Islamic Universi-
ty of Iran, Sepidan Branch, Sepidan, Iran. Email Address: Maralrahma-
ni756@gmail.com
209
nology
These three were the most important reasons, which led au-
thorities to agree with establishment of Carpet museum. In
sixties Abdul Aziz Farmanfarmaian assigned to be the head of
carpet museum building project. He was one of the French
school of Bozar graduates, who started teaching at the College
of Fine Arts in Tehran University in the fifties. Farman-
farmaiyan Office besides architectural design also worked in
the urban design and planning fields. For instance, it can be
mentioned Non-industrial consortium of Oil works, including
urban planning, building schools, building houses and build-
ing offices in oil-rich regions in the years of 1967 – 1975 and
also urban planning and housing of Sarcheshmeh Copper
Company of Kerman, Karaj Khaneh Corporation, Isfahan
Khane Corporation and Khane Corporation in East of Tehran
City. But his most known urban project is Masterplan of Teh-
ran City with Victor Graven cooperation. Among his other
architectural works, it can be point out the design of Tehran
Azadi Stadium, National Iranian Oil Company building, Vet-
erinary Medicine university, Mother Palace in Saadabad Pal-
ace Complex, part of Niavaran palace, office building of Radio
and Television, Iran's pavilion in Montreal exhibition in 1976,
and Arj company and nuclear reactor of Tehran University.
Carpet museum is one of his design projects, which is the
main subject of this study. The museum is located in North-
west side of Tehran's Laleh Park on a land with the area of
12,000 square meters. The Architecture of this museum is a
combination of traditional and modern architecture. Carpet
museum complex of Iran, contains the most exquisite collec-
tions of Iranian carpet from the fifteenth century AD till the
contemporary era.
Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 2, Issue 2, February 2014
ISSN 2345-2633
In this study, at first procedure of the museum architecture
and dominant architectural concepts and ideologies of fifties
been taken into consideration. Then architect's attitude regard-
ing the context of the project and its relationship with carpet
museum has been studied. Therefore the main objective of this
study is to clarify the effect of Farmanfarmaiyan Historicist
and modernist views on the structural, functional and physical
form of the museum.
2 ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM IN PAHLAVI II ERA
"From the late Qajar and early Pahlavi period, great political,
social and cultural changes had occurred in Iran. Constructing
wide streets in the heart of the historical context, establishing
major governmental buildings and the emergence of a kind of
undervalued common architecture are characteristics of this
period. Although At the same time some buildings with an-
cients traditional appearance buildings were erected, But it
should be noted that this matter was happend under the spe-
cific program for placing pre-Islamic' past against Islam's past.
Thus such a superficial moves could not be considered for
making a strong support for identity, which can be based on it,
renovate the character of Iran Contemporary architecture
"(Memarian, 2004:341).
One category of these contemporary architects, were known as
the second generation pioneering architects, which can be ex-
pressed in the domain of a cultural triangle:
• The impact of West culture and civilization.
3 ABDUL AZIZ FARMANFARMAIAN THEORETICAL
PERSPECTIVE (1920-2013)
"One of the Iranian influential architects whom his main con-
cern was architectural engineering, is Abdul Aziz Farman-
farmaian. He was born in 1920 in Tehran "(Bani Masoud
2011:311). He is considered as one of the most important pio-
neering architects of second generation of Iranian contempo-
rary architecture, whom was one of the founders of modern
engineering system. He studied at the School of Bozar in Paris
and graduated in April 1930 and then returned to Iran. At
first, he began to design for relatives and friends in his father’s
garage and then had been hired in Tehran University’s office.
Shortly after his residence in Iran, he started teaching in one of
210
• Iranian heritage (with highlighted role of pre-Islam architec-
ture).
• The rise of architects from ventricle of these two.
In addition to addressing these group of contemporary archi-
tects, it should also be noted that sixties and seventies ' Irani-
an Intellectuals’ concerns, were kind of a tendency towards
cultural ecologic. Aligned with these scholars, architects were
also searching for "kinsman Architecture ». What in the name
of "kinsman architecture" formed in this period, was nothing
less than modern architecture with ecological tendency. This
point must also be considered, that the second generation pio-
neering architects' tendency towards historicity and ecology,
was not happened by, postmodern scholars' Theoretical In-
structions such as Robert Venturi and Charlrz junks, But took
place through implemented projects and works by architects
such as Louis Kahn's , Alvar Aalto, James Sterling and Hassan
Fathy's discussions mentioned in architecture book "Architec-
ture for the poor" and his most important work in Qurna in
Egypt(see Fig. (2) ). What is worthy in this position is the ef-
forts of these architects to create an "Iranian architecture",
which can have an status in international Assemblies (Bani
Masoud., 2011:297).
One reason for these architects confusion in finding their
identity was the unclear ideology beneath this architecture. If
we truly master our time ideology, or in other words, we have
a clear idea for our present time, perhaps it is easier for archi-
tect to restore his identity (Mirmiran, 2004:12).
the Tehran Fine Art University's studios under the chairman-
ship of Eng. Foroughi, along with Eng. AftanDlyan, Sihon and
Qyahy (Untitled, 2011).
He could truly be named the father of " Consulting Engineers
of Iran, ". Farmanfarmaian is an architect who was contem-
plating to "build”, and this concern of his should not be con-
sidered without social context and the technology of his time.
An architectural design for him is a builed design. An archi-
tect’s success rate is valued with his built works. Accordingly,
he believed that a serious attention towards requirements,
facilities and constraints of time and place,is the most im-
portant condition for success in business. As his distinguish-
ing characteristics are the strong belief in the necessity of
proper function of building and high precision in executional
details, can be mentioned. He believes that each architectural
opus must be able to do its desired propose properly and the
Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 2, Issue 2, February 2014
ISSN 2345-2633
proper use of his accessible materials is a principle (Farman-
farmaian 2006).
Abdul Aziz farmanFarmaian entered into the realm of Iran’s
Architecture, when the major parts of architecture works
were in the hands of foreign companies and engineers and
there was nothing like designing the architectural detailng. In
fact Farmanfarmaian’s time should be considered as the era of
revolution of construction technology from the traditional
technology to a modern technology. With this understanding
he tried to find practical solutions and he could revise and
remedy this deficiency in the possible minimum time with
help of foreign architects’ experiences and visiting important
project from around the world. So, major of his work has been
modeled on the work of modern architects. As he himself also
insist on this issue that he designed most of his works as an
extract of Richard Neutra, Franck Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier
and Bauhaus school’s instructions and the International style(
Moghtader 2003:58).
“As Farmanfarmaian’s Historicism works can point out Teh-
ran university’s Mosque, Iran’s Pavilion in Montreal Interna-
tional expo in 1967, and Carpet museum in 1977 AD .But also
it should be mentioned that the concepts which he had ex-
pressed in giving the building an Iranian look, seems just to be
in the ostensible part of Iranian architecture concepts( Bani
Fig. 4. The right figure, the location of Carpet Museum in urban context. Figure 5: The left figure, relationship between the
contemporary art museum and the carpet Museum from form viewpoint.
5 CARPET MUSEUM
"This museum was incompletely built as Carpet Gallery in
1961 and remained abandoned for 15 years and then in the
early 1976, its repairs and overall changes began and was offi-
cially opened on 22 January of 1977 "(Bani Masood, 2011: 313-
314). However, It also should be noted that researching in his-
tory, evolution and history quality of art and the carpet indus-
try, particularly in Iran, collecting and purchasing a variety of
hand-woven Iranian carpets and holding temporary exhibi-
tions of Iranian and around the world’s carpet, are considered
211
Masoud 2011:313).
4 INTRODUCTION OF THE EXISTING SPACE AROUND
THE BUILDING AND BUILDING LOCATIONS IN URBAN
CONTEXT
Carpet Museum is located on the north side of Laleh Park, in
Fatemi Avenue. Existence of Waterfronts in nearby sidewalks
is separating the main area of museum from street space. (Fig.
4). It should also be noted that in the area of museum's green
space, there is a building with a specific shape and double-
glazing and no roof, which the given usage to it, is chapel
function.
Carpet Museum association with Contemporary Art Muse-
um: Contemporary Art Museum located on the north side of
Keshavarz Boulevard, Westside of Laleh Park and south of
carpet museum and has started its artistic and cultural activi-
ties in 1977. It should also be noted that two museum build-
ings were built nearly at the same time, so that architect of
Contemporary Art Museum, Kamran Diba, also has designed
the chapel of contemporary art museum. Of course there is a
detailed description of these two buildings' form association
that is beyond the scope of this study.
as carpet Museum's agendas.
Initially, the museum began its work with displaying 275
carpet and then this number had increased with purchasing
from domestic and foreign resources and transfers from other
museums, including the Golestan Palace Museum, (Bassam,
1390). It should also be noted that in this building all types of
rugs and hand-woven carpets are kept considering their quali-
ty and their age and with regard to characteristics of Iranian
carpets in terms of color, design, pattern texture and diversity
of carpet weaving areas. The building has a displaying area of
3400 square meters, which consists of two halls. These halls
are used for displaying types of hand-woven carpets and rugs.
Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 2, Issue 2, February 2014
ISSN 2345-2633
Fig. 6. Tehran Carpet Museum. Source: Jam News
Fig. 7. Repeating rhythm in exterior facade.
6 CHARACTERISTICS OF BUILDING'S ARCHITECTURE
AND IMPACT OF ARCHITECT'S ATTITUDE ON THESE
INDICATORS
Carpet Museum of Iran has a beautiful and spectacular archi-
tecture that the building’s exterior ornaments are inspired
from black nomadic tents and Carpet looms. (Bassam, 2011,
Bonnie M., 2011: 314). Farmanfarmaian also had used Iranian
traditional elements in designing the carpet museum building.
However, the totality of museum's design is modern and it is a
reminder of international architecture style. In a general per-
spective, it can be stated that the scheme of the Carpet Muse-
um is designed with a modern purpose, but the architect has
tried to give the museum an Iranian theme behind the modern
architecture (Bani Masoud, 2011: 313-314).
6.1 Introversion
Due to the carpet sensitivity to the direct sunlight the outer body
of building has minimal contact with the outside environment. In
other words, "architectural form of museum building has been
selected in a manner that the displaying part of museum has the
lowest correlation with outer space"(Bani Masoud, 2011: 314).
Also, to enhance security in this building, only one main door
and two emergency exit door have been used. In order to ventila-
212
tion. Air conditioner device between the roof and Pseudo ceiling
does the Temperature and humidity control. These factors caused
Farmanfarmaian to have an introspective approach in museum
building. It should be conceded that the architect in his introspec-
tive attitude just considered formal point of view and did not use
introversion conceptual attitude.
6.2 The Revealed Ornaments as Carpet Loom
One of the physical characteristics of the museum's exterior
facade is its revealed ornaments, which is similar to Carpet
loom. These traditional and historicity elements have provid-
ed, the structural performance of the building and are made of
reinforced concrete. Ornaments have been made of series of
columns, which are connected together so that the entrance to
the carpet museum occurs from under one of these openings.
These columns are a trace of architect’s historicity thoughts in
the museum. It must be acknowledged that the architect in
designing the building along with his modernist agendas has
given an Iranian form to the museum that he used revealed
ornaments to achieve this goal.
Fig. 8. Investigating the role of carpet loom in the carpet museum's
structure as an attribute of architect’s thoughts in the building
(Source: authors).
6.3 Light Shafts
To provide light in this museum, entering direct light is prevent-
ed as far as possible. The architectural style of the building is in a
manner that the least of light is allowed into the gallery. For ex-
ample, the overall consul of the building on the top of the win-
dows has provided many shades in order to prevent them from
allowing the entrance of direct light as far as possible, due to the
Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 2, Issue 2, February 2014
ISSN 2345-2633

destructive effects of light on museum and carpets. Except the
inside of the spring house (central hall), in the other parts of gal-
lery the sunlight does not penetrate into the inner space. Also In
this part the light passes trough a suspended ceiling, which is
made of a special plastic. This layer acts like a filter and reduces
the intensity of sunlight and eliminates a considerable amount of
harmful rays. So to lighten gallery space, solar lamps with varia-
ble radiation angle have been used in gallery space. Therefore,
solar lamps with variable radiation angle have been used in gal-
lery space. The trace of Iranian architecture can bee seen in the
roof lights and it is indicating the designer's visual perspective in
making building more Iranian.

Fig. 9. Observing the location of artificial light shafts of Ceiling in the Museum (Source: authors).

French, English and German in the library. Also best books,

periodicals and researches related to Iranian carpet and in
6.4 Impact of Farmanfarmaian’s Historicity Attitude on general Eastern carpets and books in the fields of religion, art
The Building Spatial Setting and literature of Iran are available in the Museum Library.
The inner space of museum is built from two halls (permanent Next to the library, bookstore of museum is also working.
gallery and temporary gallery) and its ancillary spaces in or- Teahouse: in the right corner of complex's lobby, teahouse
der to display different types of carpets and rugs. Permanent with a convenient visual to the lobby is located. In fact it is a
gallery of museum is located on the ground floor and its area place for enthusiasts to relax and drink for a short time af-
is approximately 1500 square meters. In the permanent gal- ter visiting the exhibition.
lery, a space has been design in which there is a vertical carpet
weaving machine (known as Tabrizi) and a carpet-weaving
artist is showing various ways of carpet weaving. The sus-
pended ceiling of theater is made of metal and designed in the
shape of filled and empty squares. These squares that are lo-
cated in different levels next to each other, in addition to add-
ing beauty to the interior space, are a suitable cover for indoor
installations. In order for Visitors to take a short break while
visiting the exhibition, sitting spaces are embedded in the cer-
tain intervals that suit the inner theme of exhibition. Tempo-
rary exhibition of carpet museum is located on the second
floor of museum with the area of approximately 800 square
meters and is designed for seasonal exhibits for different parts
of Iran. For ancillary spaces of museum can mention services,
tearoom, library and administrative (Bani Masoud, 2011: 314-
315).
Library: there are almost 3500 books in Persian, Arabic,
213
Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 2, Issue 2, February 2014
ISSN 2345-2633
Fig. 10. Right figure: the lobby of complex and connectivity paths with
other parts of museum; Fig. 11. left figure: location of permanent
exhibition and the way of getting in and out of it (Source: authors).
Sector of Museum Office: As this section's most important
actions are, documentation of existing opus in the museum. It
should be noted, that what is important in introduction and
training section after the documentation, is troves’ presenta-
tion and display. Other tasks of this part of the museum is
researching which would be achieved through organizing var-
ious exhibitions and numerous lectures, translating special-
ized books, data collection and presentation of different pa-
pers. One of the peripheral exhibitions that are held in this
museum recently, is temporary exhibition particularly for
blinds. A number of museum’s opus which have exsert pat-
terns, form this exhibition collection.
Restoration Section: for better maintenance of museum's
opus, they should be cleaned, treat and repair regularly. In
order to achieve this goal, museum office has a special section
called the Restoration Workshop. This part is located next to
the museum office and has a relatively proper connection to
the complex's library. Acoustic matters have led to existence of
this distance.
TABLE 1
THE LEVEL OF MUSEUM'S SPACES RELATION TO EACH OTHER
(SOURCE: AUTHORS)
Service Sector: this part is a location for service and guards of
214
museum to deployment, which includes guards' resorts, kitch-
en, bathroom, dining, police dorm and chapel.
Fig. 12. The location of different spaces in the plan (Source: authors).
Farmanfarmaian has applied his historicist insights in the
shape and appearance and modern concepts has been applied
in the structure of the building. However, we should point
out that the museum is an appendage of the modern world
and in our country does not have much history. So Farman-
farmaian is satisfied with applying only historicist perspective
on the physical of building.
7 CONCLUSION
In the examination of Farmanfarmaian thoughts’ process we
came to this conclusion that most of the built structures in the
Second Pahlavi period were Integration of modern and tradition-
al architecture. Therefore, Farmanfarmaian's time should be con-
sidered as the era of transition and transformation of the technol-
ogy. Most of his works has been modeled after the work of mod-
ern architects. As he himself also emphasizes, he has designed
most portion of his projects with adaptation from Richard Neutra
and Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier the Bauhaus school's
Instructions and the International Style. Farmanfarmaian also has
used traditional Persian elements in the design of carpet museum
monument. However museum design has a modern totality and
it is a reminder of the international style of architecture. In a gen-
eral perspective, it can be stating that carpet museum design has
been designed with modern agendas, but the architect has tried
to give it an Iranian theme behind the modern architecture. One
of the Physical characteristics of the museum's exterior facade is
its revealed ornaments, which is similar to Carpet loom. These
traditional and historicity elements have provided, the structural
performance of the building and are made of reinforced concrete.
Architect's purpose of these elements is purely of historicist as-
pects. Farmanfarmaian applied his historicist approach only in
the body of building and in its spatial structure had used more of
modern concepts and had less attention to his historicist ap-
proach. In Skylights of this building Iranian architecture's visual
indications is evident and architect did not use Iranian light
shaft's structure, but has given it An Iranian look with only an
Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 2, Issue 2, February 2014
ISSN 2345-2633

Iranian decorative cover. In general, in the design of carpet mu-

seum, Farmanfarmaian has applied his historicist approaches in
the physical of the building and has used his modernist ap-
proaches in the structure of the building and has tried to integrate
modern and traditional (historicist) architecture.

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