company
type
role
team
marz architecture | design
space
architect | researcher
Farshad Nasiri, Mehrnaz Zarrin, mahyar rakei, nima shoaei
2019 | Third place: Imam Reza museum competition
abstract
Imam Reza’s shrine in Mashhad, Iran, is considered one of the most visted holy sites in the whole muslim world. With this large number of pilgrims, comes a large wave of offerings and tributes to the holy shrine, which would be placed within the existing museum in the complex. The exisitng “museum” acts more as a storage rather than a museum, with a low visiting rate from the pilgrims. Thus a competition to erect a new museum, alongside the outer border of the complex in a much bigger land was commenced, with the goals of bringing in more population flow into the complex and the museum.
The propsed museum follows the “structure” as the rest of the complex: courtyards (“Sahns”) make up the majority of the shrine, in which different programs take place (religious activites, education and etc. ). Thus a roofed courtyard was designed at the ground level to both act as an event space and to connect the museum directly to the shrine. Thus museum spaces are situated in the underground levels and one level above ground.
Five enormous pillars were erected to act as space organizers and support the above ground level, in which gallery spaces are situated in and between this pillars, resulting in two circulation paths being formed around the pillars.
