Abdol Aziz Farmanfarmaian

Biography

Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian was born in Shiraz in 1920 as the tenth son of Prince Abdol-Hossein Farman Farma, at the time Governor General of the province of Shiraz. In 1928, at the age of 8, he was sent to school in France, where he remained for his primary and secondary education at Lycée Michelet in Paris until 1938. A brief trip to Iran during the short summer of 1935 was his first contact as an adolescent with his family.

He received his Baccalaureate degree in 1938. Prince Abdol Hossein Mirza organised Mr. Desiré Roustan, a leading French philosopher and writer, as the guardian for four of his sons, including Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian. Architectural studies were initiated in the École Spéciale d'Architecture, where he started to prepare for the Beaux Arts School. The onset of World War II broke the continuity of his studies, and he had to leave for Iran in 1940, where he stayed until 1945. During this period of worldwide uncertainty, he worked at different jobs such as: Tehran Municipality, Karnsaks, and the Ministry of Culture (Vezarat-e Pishehonar).

In 1942, he married Leila Gharagozlou and formed a family, having a son.

After the end of World War II, Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian came back to Paris with his family to continue his studies and was admitted to the Atelier of Mr. Nicot at the world-famous Ecole des Beaux Arts where he received his degree in 1950. The final project presented as his thesis was the design for a modern caravanserai to be situated in southern Iran. This project received the prize for the best thesis (diploma) of the year.

In 1950, Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian moved back to Tehran for good until 1979, where he proceeded to create one of Iran's most important modern-day architectural legacies.

The initial years—The Razmara period, followed by the Mossadegh years—were marked by an unstable political and economic situation. Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian started to work as a civil servant at the University of Tehran in the Department of Construction, where he became departmental director after a few years. During the same period, he was given a professorial chair at the Tehran University school of Architecture (Daneshkadeh Honarha-ye Ziba), where he taught architecture until 1957–58.

In 1954, Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian was admitted to the Plan Organization as a recognized consultant. At this time when Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian designed numerous private residences for his extended relatives, friends, and clients. The legal entity that was set up was known as Moassesseh-ye Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian. In 1976, the company known as AFFA, Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian and Associates, was created for the design of the Stadium and following the directive of the Plan Organization to be associated with younger architects. The new associates belonged to Reza Majd and Farokh Hirbod, both graduates from first-class American universities. AFFA's associates increased over the years.

Farman-Farmaian permanently moved to Paris in 1980 and afterwards to Spain, where he died aged 93. He was also in close contact with his partner Reza Majd, who still practiced architecture until recently in Palma, Mallorca, Spain.

Project list

In 1975, AFFA's rating in the plan organization was ranked first in Iran as a design and engineering consultant organization.

Works

Office buildings

Ministry of Agriculture, 22-storey headquarters office building, 1976

National Iranian Oil Company Headquarters (in collaboration with Yahya Etehadieh), 13-storey office in Tehran, 1961

Telecommunication Center, 2-storey tower in Tehran (sub-contract from Aneg), 1974

Ministry of Roads, 14-storey headquarters building, 1959

National Iranian Television Center, Studios, offices, and other facilities in Tehran, 1972

Beh Shahr Group Office, Offices and other facilities, 1969

Khaneh Center Commercial Complex, 3 three-story towers of 200,000 square meters, half finished,

Bank Saderat Isfahan Branch Office, Banking facilities, 1978

Bank Kar Building, 23-story building offices, 1960

Bank Etebarat/Credit Lyonnais, Offices and banking facilities, 1968

Oil Consortium Head Offices (in collaboration with Wilson, Mason and Partners), eight-story office building, 1960

Cement Company Office, Built at the Plant, 1960

Tehran Olympic Center

Track and field and football stadium, 100,000-seat stadium with all related facilities, with an artificial lake to the north of the complex, 1970

Tehran Master Plan

Partnered with the American firm of Victor Gruen Associates, Farmanfarmaian proposed his most important project, the Master plan of Tehran. This comprehensive plan, which was approved in 1968, identified the city's problems to be high density, expansion of new suburbs, air and water pollution, inefficient infrastructure, unemployment, and rural-urban migration. To deal with these problems, the consortium envisioned a 25-year planning horizon, which encouraged reducing the density and congestion of the city center through polycentric developments around Tehran. Eventually, the whole plan was 'marginalized' by the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the subsequent Iran–Iraq War.