Apartment No 1-Architecture by Collective Terrain

Apartment No 1-Architecture by Collective Terrain

The stone cutting industry in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahallat" target="_blank">Mahallat, Iran</a> is a big business - in fact, it accounts for almost half the city's economy. Unfortunately, the cutting process produces a lot of wasted stone that can't be used. Tehran-based <a href="http://collectiveterrain.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Architecture by Collective Terrain</a> wanted to do make use of this "unusable" stone, so they built an apartment building out of the remains. <a href="http://collectiveterrain.blogspot.com/2010/11/ramin-mehdizadehabct-ny-won-memar-award.html" target="_blank">Apartment No. 1</a> in downtown Mahallat is a contemporary stone building with eight 3-bedroom apartments set atop a street-level retail space. Not only is the project stunning, but it also shows the city that their scrap stone is really not waste at all.

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Apartment No 1-Architecture by Collective Terrain

The region around Mahallat has considerable travertine deposits, which is mined and cut into tile in factories.

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Apartment No 1-Architecture by Collective Terrain

However the process of cutting tile is incredibly energy intensive, and the production of one tile wastes a tile's worth of material.

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Apartment No 1-Architecture by Collective Terrain

These scraps are considered unusable and sent to the dump.

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Apartment No 1-Architecture by Collective Terrain

When designing an apartment building for the center of Mahallat, <a href="http://collectiveterrain.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Architecture by Collective Terrain</a> wanted to show the town that these "scraps" could still be used.

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Apartment No 1-Architecture by Collective Terrain

They collected left-over stones from different mines and combined them to create a building with a multicolored texture and organic pattern.

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Apartment No 1-Architecture by Collective Terrain

The five-story project features retail on the first floor and four stories of apartments. Each floor has two 3-bedroom apartments, and the local stone used on the exterior is also brought into the interior to create a unified theme.

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Apartment No 1-Architecture by Collective Terrain

The stones provide thermal mass to slow the transfer of heat throughout the day, and operable shading devices help control sunlight and heat gain.

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Apartment No 1-Architecture by Collective Terrain

When the shades are open during the winter, more light and heat reaches into the interior.

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Apartment No 1-Architecture by Collective Terrain

The project was completed in 2010 and it has already influencing the town and local builders to make use of this recycled stone. <a href="http://collectiveterrain.blogspot.com/2010/11/ramin-mehdizadehabct-ny-won-memar-award.html" target="_blank">Apartment No. 1</a> has been added to the shortlist for the <a href="http://www.akdn.org/architecture/project.asp?id=4044" target="_blank">2013 Aga Khan Architecture Award</a>.

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Apartment No 1-Architecture by Collective Terrain

Stone recycling process in Mahallat.

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The stone cutting industry in Mahallat, Iran is a big business - in fact, it accounts for almost half the city's economy. Unfortunately, the cutting process produces a lot of wasted stone that can't be used. Tehran-based Architecture by Collective Terrain wanted to do make use of this "unusable" stone, so they built an apartment building out of the remains. Apartment No. 1 in downtown Mahallat is a contemporary stone building with eight 3-bedroom apartments set atop a street-level retail space. Not only is the project stunning, but it also shows the city that their scrap stone is really not waste at all.

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Apartment No 1-Architecture by Collective Terrain