Escherblock - Tehran Stock Exchange
Tehran, Iran, 2012
Programme: Exchange hall, offices, data center, exhibition hall, library, sport facilities...
Size: 20 000 m2/105 000m3
TSE - or the Tehran Stock Exchange was an architectural contradiction as well as potential. On a warm spring day in Mashhad we were once again reminded that architecture is a constant game of life and death. We were shortlisted to take part in a prestigious International competition for the Tehran Stock exchange building. The first question that crosses one's mind is how can we be inventive after the most recent building of OMA in Shenzen' How can we put Tehran on the map the same way that OMA did with Shenzen'
The stock exchange becomes a 'public affair'; the building is then a device for allowing public space to find other meanings and functions. This building is a sophisticated three-dimensional structural grid that responds to the extreme earthquake conditions of the site. It is also a project that allows the public to cross the block without having to go around the building. It is a compact idea of terraces that are stacked and climb up the building. Every floor has a breath-taking view of the high range mountains in Tehran. It is a new type, as no other stock exchange in the world is a public building. The trading floor is its heart but also its stomach. It was our Moby-Dick.