Remarkable Yet Simple Designs

Sara Kalantary and Reza Sayadian, founders of Sayadian & Partners Design Ltd., bring a unique and humble perspective to architecture. Their works showcase unconventional solutions, emphasizing respect for humanity and the environment. Viewing architecture as a dynamic phenomenon integrated into city life, they aim to create memorable spaces. Their approach has earned international and national awards, recognition from academia, and widespread publication in books and magazines globally.

What is your perspective of architecture that enables you to create such diverse works?

Architecture is not just erecting a building but realization of a dream as it has always been more than a shelter even in its most primitive form. Architecture is mankind and its heart and soul. Good architecture not only takes project economics into consideration, but strives to realize human space also.

True architecture is spatial and an architect as a strategist, is one who first studies and examines the project platform to be able to do the design accordingly. In addition to organizing the spatial system of the project, this method holds a fundamental idea which can create novel situations.
The interesting fact is the common belief that the people construct buildings and houses; whereas in reality, cities as well as residences are the ones which create the society and human. In this sense, human is the product of space.

What has been the most compelling aspect of your experience, living and working together professionally for the past twenty-five years?

The attraction is in the sense of adventure and searching for innovative solutions and new ideas for each project. The truth of the matter is that the opportunity for a dialogue consistently helps to reveal the hidden angles of the problem and this helps in architecture a lot. Each project creates a stream of life which we are a part of. “We turn architecture into life”.

At this point I would like to ask you about the international awards that you have won during these years, shining alongside the world’s greatest architects.

In 2012 and 2016, we won the Chicago International Award with the title of “The Best New Global Design”. This is one of the most prestigious architecture awards in the world which was founded by one of the late architects of Chicago with the motto: “Design from the spoon to the city”. We also secured the New York Architizer award in 2015 and 2017 for Danial and Saba residences, as well as the Asian Gold Medal in Vienna in 2016. Also recently, Domus magazine, which is one of the most reliable and the oldest magazine in Italy in the field of Art and architecture, made a documentary of our over-the-years achievements and published it on its website. They also introduced our latest project – House number 6 – as a response to the transformation of the city of Tehran and providing a suitable response for such changes.

We have also been engaged in teaching at universities and holding various conferences in the world’s most prestigious institutions. We are also active in the field of installation and art; for instance, a work called “Gozar/Passage” which was published in the last issue of Domus Magazine. This masterpiece is a passage for thinking and searching which shows the most conspicuous feature of the contemporary world: “uncertainty”.