Revolving Bricks Serai in Arak, Iran

Situated in a residential area of Arak, Iran, “Revolving Bricks Serai” is an eye-catching office building completed by lead architect, Farhad Mirzaie from APP Architects & Associates. The team at APP Architects & Associates constructed the undulating facade using parametric design principles.

Maximum light, ultimate privacy

The principal front of a building, usually facing the street normally allows in natural light and maximum sunlight whilst ensuring privacy. In the case of the Revolving Bricks Serai office building in Arak, Iran, the placement of an office building next to the residential building had more challenges as it creates an unlikely mentality for residential neighbours in terms of the number of visitors as well as the aristocracy from the upper floors to residential buildings, hence the importance of privacy.

The architects opted to follow a set formula or algorithm to allow for maximum light while maintaining privacy by creating a unique building pattern.

Rippling effect and colour highlights

The gradual rotation of the bricks creates a rippling effect that reads differently from different angles. The appearance is enhanced further with another carefully considered detail: the short ends of each brick are coloured with shades of blue and green to highlight the effect of the rotation.

The design helps designers to achieve futuristic forms and a high level of control over a series of design moves. Bricks are an especially useful medium for parametric design tools because the small units can be manipulated in a variety of ways, including pushing, pulling and (in this case) rotating.

Complex patterns and arrangement

This architectural trend celebrates complex patterns and variety through free-form shapes that break away from the traditional sharp-edge and straight-line concepts often seen in the practice. A closer look at the arrangement of the individual bricks reveals another important value of “parametricism”: How each design element behaves singularly and relatively to one another’s, adaptability and interdependence, then comes together to define this impressive facade. 

All images courtesy of APP Architects & Associates

Full acknowledgement and thanks go to https://www.designboom.com/architecture/app-architects-and-associates-revolving-bricks-serai-facade-iran-11-26-2021/, https://parametric-architecture.com and http://mymodernmet.com/ for the information in this editorial.