Editors’ Choice
2024 Skyscraper Competition

Hossein Amery, Hosein Mosavi, Amir Hosein Saiidi, Marzieh Hoseinvand
France

The attempt of the project ahead is to give an answer to the regeneration of ecosystem which is on the verge of destruction. An answer arising from an ancient cultural tradition. Iranians have always adhered to their traditions as well as to their ancient history, they turned diverse native and ethnic cultures into traditions and later into social and religious beliefs. They hold firm beliefs and customs about the burial of dead bodies and considered them as orders from Ahura Mazda and stuck to it. Zoroastrians believed that natural elements such as water, soil, fire and wind should not be contaminated, therefore they regarded burial or burning and drowning corpses to be something against religious rites and they considered it contrary to Zoroastrian orders to preserve the environment. To avoid this contamination, dead bodies is left exposed in an isolated structure, called a dakhma, or tower of silence, to decompose and be scavenged by vultures before the bones are collected and placed in an Ossuary.

These cylindrical buildings are now abandoned in most parts of Iran. One of the valuable sites with a collection of these buildings is Holy Mountain (Bibi Shahr Bano). Due to existing of rich cement mines since years ago, a cement factory was established near this mountain, which in multitudinous ways caused damage to the ecosystem of this ancient site. The majority of the irreparable damage that has already affected the ecosystem of the ancient mountain is the pollution caused by consumption of Mazut which is a low-quality heavy fuel oil so as to compensate for the lack of sufficient electricity needed in the factory. From early on Ossuary in fact, has acted as an environment-friendly catalyst and purifier to prevent the four main elements of nature mentioned earlier from getting contaminated. Read the rest of this entry »