TEHRAN – Excavation of a bottle containing some notes has inspired Iranian director Hadi Afrideh to use a plan similar to James Cameron’s epic romance “Titanic” to make his latest documentary about Austrian architect Hans Hollein’s visits to Iran.

Earlier in May 2022, Iran’s Documentary, Experimental and Animation Film Center (DEAFC) announced the production of the documentary “Hollein in Iran”, which chronicles the trips Hollein made to Iran in the 1970s to convert Qavam us-Saltaneh Edifice, a Qajar-era building, into the Glassware and Ceramic Museum of Iran.

The museum was restored several times later. In the latest restoration, a bottle containing notes was unearthed beneath the flooring.

“I was living nearby in a house back in the museum and then director of the museum, Mr. Hamid Vakilbashi, a friend of mine, called me talking about the excavation of a strange object during the restoration of the flooring,” Afrideh told the Persian service of MNA on Tuesday.

“I went to the museum where I saw that a bottle, once used as a medicine container, was unearthed from the flooring. The bottle contained notes giving descriptions of the restorations carried out on the building. Just at the moment, I told myself that it is a ‘Titanic’ plan, i.e. a film starts with a special event and goes on with depicting details about the incident,” he said.

“I always attach great importance to topics concerning the historical structure of cities and this issue provided a good opportunity to present it,” Afrideh added.

He has carried out intensive research to make “Hollein in Iran”, which gives new information about Hollein’s visits to Iran.

Hollein visited Iran by invitation of Iran’s cultural officials in order to change Qavam us-Saltaneh Edifice into the Glassware and Ceramic Museum of Iran, also known as Abgineh Museum.

Hollein embarked on long tours across Iran to gather information for the project and was entranced by the grandeur of ancient Persian architecture.

Hollein graduated in 1956 from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he studied in the master class of Clemens Holzmeister. 

In 1959, he attended the Illinois Institute of Technology and then in 1960, the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed his master of architecture degree.

In 1985, he won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, an international architecture award presented annually “to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment.”

Among his works are Haas-Haus and Soravia-Wing of the Albertina in Vienna, and Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt and Abteiberg Museum in Monchengladbach.

Hollein died in 2014 in Vienna, after a long illness, at the age of 80.

Photo: A file photo shows Hadi Afarideh (C) directing a scene in “Hollein in Iran”.
 
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