Tehran, the Grey City

Pavilion “Tehran, the Grey City”

The pavilion “Tehran, the Grey City”, presented as the official participation of Manadena in the 8th edition of the Architecture & People Festival, is a spatial experience that represents the contemporary reality of Tehran—not through description, but through confrontation; an immediate encounter with a city oscillating between habitation and erosion, equilibrium and disorder, density and loss of identity.

Erected within the competition section of the festival, from 19 to 24 October, the pavilion operates as a physical, tangible and inhabitable construct, immersing the viewer within the grey condition of Tehran.

Project specifications

Design Concept

The pavilion is conceived upon a fundamental duality between the dense, monolithic exterior volume and the reflective, multilayered interior space.

The outer mass—composed of an aggregated configuration of interlocked cubic modules—serves as a metaphor for the uncontrolled urban accretion, relentless densification, and the erosion of spatial identity within the city. Its grey tone and rigid proportions echo the architectural condition visible in Tehran today.

In contrast, the interior is defined by an environment of reflection, repetition and fragmentation: a field of mirrors in which the individual is suspended among successive echoes of the self. The inner experience is an entrance into a city that no longer presents a singular image, but instead returns a multiplied, unsettled version of its own being.

Rather than offering solutions, the pavilion formulates a question: the unresolved future of a city that has expanded, yet has lost its capacity for livability. This architectural work stands as a manifestation of Tehran in a state of suspension—neither collapsed, nor redeemed.

Architect’s speech

Pavilion No. 11 is a reflection of a city on the verge of crisis – a metropolis that, under the relentless pressure of density and uncontrolled growth, has lost its sense of calm and identity. This work is not merely a structure; it is an experience – an encounter with silence, contemplation, and architecture as an independent language. It seeks to reinterpret the relationship between human and space through an abstract and contemporary lens.
The exterior form, composed of interlocked and stratified cubes, becomes a metaphor for the ceaseless construction and disproportionate accumulation that have come to define our urban landscape – a mass that is grey, weighty, and enigmatic.

Inside, the same geometry tells another story. mirrored cubes that capture the viewer within a maze of reflections. This creates an atmosphere of illusion and uncertainty a through the infinite multiplication of one’s own image.
Rooted m principles of fractal order and coherence, the pavilion balances between chaos and control. Its beauty lies not in tranquility, but in the revelation of contradictions: multiplicity against unity, transparency against obscurity, the dialogue between individual and architecture within a city that seems to be consuming itself.
“Tehran, the Grey City” is more than a structure – it is a statement. An invitation to reflect upon the future of a city that though vibrant and full of life, stands on the edge of losing its equilibrium and serenity.

— Reza Najafian

Presented by Manadena at the Architecture & People Festival