TEHRAN – Kia Lab and the Hitra Office Building in Iran have won prizes at the BLT Built Design Awards.

The event is an annual competition focusing on architecture, interior design, construction products and project management.

Established by Hossein Farmani and Astrid Hébert, the BLT Built Design Awards is organized by the 3C Awards in Switzerland under a larger organization called 3C Group, a sister company to Farmani Group, founded by Farmani in LA.

Kia Lab, a clinical laboratory located in the town of Qarah Ziaeddin, West Azarbaijan Province, won the award in the Architectural Design - Healthcare and Wellness Facilities category.

In designing the Kia Laboratory Project, Davud Borujeni’s Office has tried to create an interaction between the building and the city by adding a new function to the building, which is having the role of an urban hangout, and blurring the border between city and building. 

In this way, the user is faced with a structure that is both a building and a city, and the border between the two is not easily recognizable. 

The idea of building-city was formed after conducting different field studies and interviews with the residents of Qarah Ziaeddin, where inhabitants considered the existence of security and the absence of coexistence spaces as two characteristics of the location.

The laboratory has been inspired in architecture by elements from ancient Iranian monuments.

In Kia Laboratory, people can enter the building through stairs and reach the first floor, without the need to enter the building and be on the ground floor. The first floor is empty space with a view of the street.

The physical structure of the laboratory has been designed and built based on the geometry and layout of the area, and is level with the neighbors’ roofs. From this level up, the formation of the building’s structure is different.

The BLT Built Design Awards is an annual competition focusing on architecture, interior design, construction products and project management. All entries are voted on by a grand jury panel composed of experienced and prominent academics, professionals, press members, entrepreneurs and leaders within the building industry.

Located at the intersection of two main streets in the Velenjak neighborhood of Tehran, the Hitra Office Building was awarded in the Architectural Design - Commercial section.

Hooba Design Group, the designer of the building, said that it reconsidered the morphology of a typical office building to enhance the lighting quality of the space and view without altering the optimum footprint of the building by reassessing regulations and limitations during the project’s primary investigations with the goal of optimizing natural lighting and view.

BEEAH Headquarters, a holding company in Sharjah designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, was selected as the Architectural Design of the Year 2022 at the BLT Built Design Awards.

KAMA-ASA Shop, a kitchen supply store in Tokyo designed by KAMITOPEN Co., was named the Interior Design of the Year 2022.

Photo: Hitra Office Building, Tehran, Iran.

MMS/YAW