Valiasr Mosque

Location

the project began with a pit—an excavation in the ground. Over time, these voids seemed to form a recurring condition in my work, sites not yet defined by form, but charged with potential. The site was located in the heart of Tehran, adjacent to the City Theater and Daneshjoos’ Park. Surrounded by universities, bookstores, museums, and theaters, this area has long functioned as one of the city’s most important cultural nodes. At the same time, it is an extremely sensitive urban site, closely observed by both the general public and Tehran’s intellectual and artistic communities.

Architectural Concept

A previous proposal for the site—a large and disproportionate structure—had been heavily criticized due to its scale and its proximity to the City Theater. As a result, the project was halted, and the municipality decided to commission a new design. The historical evolution of mosque architecture was studied as the starting point. The earliest mosque, built under the direction of the Prophet of Islam, was fundamentally horizontal in its spatial organization. Over the course of fourteen centuries, however, mosque typology gradually shifted toward an emphasis on verticality.

This observation led to a central question: could the mosque be reimagined through a return to a horizontal spatial condition? If the contemporary mosque is defined by a vertical diagram, what alternative architectural logic might emerge by inverting that assumption?

The project proposed lifting the ground itself and extending it over the building volume. In this way, the mosque remained connected to the earth while simultaneously rising toward the sky—merging architecture and landscape into a continuous surface. Given its location beside the City Theater and along Daneshjoos’ Park, the building was conceived as a direct extension of the park’s terrain. The ground plane became both roof and structure, and the mosque emerged as a landscape rather than an object.

The surface of this lifted ground functioned as the primary structural form of the building. Later, objections were raised by religious hardliners who argued that the building did not resemble a conventional mosque. A three-meter wall was constructed in front of the project, interrupting its intended continuity. Without this wall, the roof would have seamlessly merged with the surrounding ground, completing the conceptual integration of architecture and landscape.

A series of openings were introduced into the roof, allowing natural light to penetrate the interior spaces below. These openings also generated inhabitable platforms on the roof surface. During certain events—such as Ta’zieh performances or open-air theater—the roof could function as seating, enabling people to gather, sit, and observe from above.

Despite its unconventional form, the project reopened a critical dialogue around the mosque as a deeply ideological architectural typology in Iran. By repositioning it within a contemporary architectural framework, the project questioned established norms and proposed an alternative understanding of sacred space. The project was envisioned as a place where people could move freely across the site—experienced simultaneously as landscape, architecture, and a place of worship.

Spatial Organization

Generally, the Valiasr Mosque with the total floor area of 25,000 sq m includes public spaces such as libraries, classes, a meeting hall, a reception hall, a praying hall and parking on 4 levels. The circulation path to the various floors of the mosque is made of gentle-sloped ramps, in order to help the children, pregnant women, elderly and disabled. The praying hall, which is considered the most important area of the mosque, is located in the western part of the building, which has the highest ceiling.

Material

Due to the low budget of the project, the finishing was designed as the simplest. We used inexpensive cream marble for the flooring and walls of the main spaces, and white colored plaster for the ceilings and columns; Washed concrete was used for the façade and roof of the mosque, to create a harmony with the color of the structure and roof of the City Theater.

Structure

Considering the earthquake hazard in Tehran, a dual lateral-force-resisting system was used, including special steel moment frames and special reinforced concrete shear walls, and for the roof forms, thirty-centimeter concrete slabs were connected to steel box columns by means of fully integrated shear-heads.