The Poet's House By Next Office: Alireza Taghaboni

The Poet’s House by Next Office, Alireza Taghaboni is a powerful example of adaptive reuse architecture in Tehran, transforming the former residence of celebrated Iranian poet Ahmad Shamlou into a contemporary cultural center.

Completed in 2025, the 900 m² project preserves the architectural memory of the original 1970s brick house while inserting a bold structural intervention that redefines its relationship to the city. Through restoration, reinterpretation, and spatial storytelling, the building becomes a public platform honoring Shamlou’s literary and political legacy.

From Private Home to Public Cultural Center

Located in downtown Tehran, the house was originally a modest brick structure characterized by rounded corners and expressive lintels typical of 1970s Iranian residential architecture. Over time, it fell into neglect.

A devoted admirer of Shamlou initiated the project with the aim of preserving the poet’s former home and transforming it into a literary and cultural hub. The renewed program includes:

• Exhibition spaces
• A library
• A bookstore
• A café
• A restaurant
• Informal routes narrating the poet’s life and ideas

The intervention shifts the building’s identity from private dwelling to open civic institution, inviting writers, readers, and citizens to engage with Shamlou’s work and legacy.

The “Aida Wall”: Architecture as Narrative

The most significant architectural gesture centers on a second-floor interior wall bearing a handwritten poem by Shamlou dedicated to his wife and muse, Aida. Rather than treating this inscription as a static artifact, the architects extended it into a conceptual and semi-structural element known as the “Aida Wall.”

This new steel structure cuts vertically through the house, rising from the courtyard to the rooftop. It acts as a three-dimensional promenade and structural reinforcement, transforming a technical necessity into a poetic architectural statement.

By projecting outward and opening the façade toward the city, the intervention symbolically expands Shamlou’s once-private space into the public realm. The formerly enclosed courtyard becomes an accessible urban void, strengthening the dialogue between interior memory and exterior civic life.

Tension Between Old and New

The project carefully preserves the original brick façade and structural shell while superimposing a bold contemporary layer. The new steel wall contrasts sharply with the historic masonry, dramatizing a dialogue between permanence and intervention.

Steel was selected for its expressive qualities: it can be cut, bent, weathered, or left to rust, allowing the architecture to embody resilience and transformation. Importantly, the steel insertion is designed to be reversible. It could one day be removed, restoring the original structure intact.

This reversibility reflects a respectful approach to heritage conservation, where new layers challenge and reinterpret memory without erasing it.

Structural Reinforcement as Design Opportunity

The existing brick load-bearing structure required reinforcement. Instead of concealing this requirement, Next Office transformed it into the central architectural concept.

The Aida Wall serves multiple functions:

• Structural strengthening
• Vertical circulation
• Exhibition spine
• Symbolic narrative device

By merging engineering logic with poetic meaning, the project demonstrates how adaptive reuse architecture can elevate functional constraints into spatial and cultural assets.

Cultural and Political Resonance

Ahmad Shamlou remains one of Iran’s most influential and controversial literary figures. Known for his politically engaged poetry and periods of imprisonment due to dissenting views, his legacy carries deep cultural and political significance.

The transformation of his home into a public cultural center therefore carries symbolic weight. It reclaims a space of personal life and creative production, turning it into a site of collective reflection.

Architecture here operates as both preservation and commentary, echoing the rebellious and questioning spirit of the poet himself.

Architectural Significance

The Poet’s House stands as a landmark in contemporary Iranian architecture and cultural adaptive reuse. By preserving the historic brick shell while inserting a reversible steel backbone, the project achieves a delicate balance between conservation and innovation.

It demonstrates how architecture can:

• Protect cultural heritage
• Activate urban public space
• Translate literary narrative into spatial form
• Bridge memory and modernity

Through this intervention, Next Office, Alireza Taghaboni redefines what a literary museum or cultural center can be, not a static monument, but a living architectural dialogue between past and present.