Oudlaloop

OUDLALOOP An Attempt to Develope Intervention Strategies to Identify and Empower the Miniature Outlaws ofTeheran

OUDLALOOP An Attempt to Develope Intervention Strategies to Identify and Empower the Miniature Outlaws ofTeheran Alaleh Navaii BAS 2014

Outlaw In modern usage, an outlaw is someone who has broken the law and remains at large —a fugitive of the law who flees the scene of crime.

Historically speaking an outlaw is someone deprived of the benefit and protection of the law, since the state can choose to ban a product or a person from its protection (e.g. outlawing a drug, an outlawed terrorist group). If you traced the notion of security (sine cura or without care—you are without care for yourself because the police or state care for you) from Plato to Seneca to Machiavelli to Benjamin and so on, it would disclose someone both deprived of the state’s care as well as someone who trespasses the legal system.

In other words, outlaws run; they are almost defined by their movement—the movement and circulation of the space in which they run is already a circulatory lattice, or in the nightmares of Hollywood, a matrix.

Table of contents

Prologue Street children phenomena Region - Iran Nomadism to urbanism City - Tehran Beginning of urbanism Urban growth Site - Oudlajan Fabric Project scope Present Voids Vision Portable Labs

Mobile theatre - an example Time table Master courses + CV

Prologue

Philosophical Approach The police regime is endowed with the power of ordering space. This project meets at the crossroads of space, policing, and visual perception, in terms of how to articulate an aesthetic dimension of the political and political dimension of the aesthetic.

Film stills from North by Northwest

Jacques Rancière is a useful and rich source for this investigation because in the course of his writings, aesthetics is not only about art, and politics is not only about the state. Politics, as laid out in Disagreement, is that which always takes a stage and takes a theatrical formation, putting ‘two worlds in one world.’

This staging often overturns sense-making at the level of language alone, relying also on microlevels of sensation and sense-making (we inherited the word ‘aesthetic’ from the Greek aisthēta ‘perceptible things’).

In Dissensus, Rancière gives mention to artistic works that focus on matters of space, territories, borders, wastelands, and other transient spaces, matters ‘that are crucial to today’s issues of power and community.’

There’s a sense of degradation in the word ´outlaw´ that is joined with this figure of a degraded outlaw in a degraded space - wastelands and other transient spaces-so far removed are both from genuine concern for collective action or citizenship.

The loaded term “degradation” is derived from the Latin etymon (down, away from) and gradus (step), commonly associated with a lowly or destitute state, or a decline in intellectual or moral integrity.

But I am most concerned with the implicit movement involved in degrading—going or wanderings of these outlaws.

As we glimpse into this interessting passage from Derrida´s ´Force of Law´ essay: "The admiring fascination exerted on the people by “the figure of the ‘great’ criminal,” (die Gestalt des “grossen” Verbrechers), can be explained as follows: it is not someone who has committed this or that crime for which one feels a secret admiration; it is someone who, in defying the law, lays bare the violence of the legal system, the juridical order itself. One could explain in the same way the fascination exerted in France by a lawyer like Jacques Verges who defends the most difficult causes, the most indefensible in the eyes of the majority, by practicing what he calls the ‘strategy of rupture,’ that is, the radical contestation of the given order of the law, of judicial authority and ultimately of the legitimate authority of the State that summons his clients to appear before the law."

Two observations here: the first is a notion of disidentification. You secretly admire the person who has disidentified themselves from the police regime or state.

Second, in laying bare the sheer violence of this order and moving away from it, the grid or matrix that was there to begin with is revealed.

I want to introduce a film still within this discourse of the ordering of space in carceral formation, specifically the grid or lattice I mentioned earlier as a modular space that is already ordered.

Here in Saul Bass design for the opening credits of North by Northwest, you notice how the thick outlines of the grid dissolve into the window frames, at once deflecting the prisonlike vertical and horizontal lines and augmenting the reflection of the city onto the building’s glass surface.

The glossy, mirrored surface of the glass acts as an uninterrupted sensory fabric, in contrast to the strategy of rupture that follows Roger O. Thornhill (Carey Grant), a Madison Avenue ad executive, as he flees from a case of mistaken identity that threatens to kill him.

Now we can move beyond material grids into a less obvious forms of visualizing criminalization.

Street children phenomena Population: ca 2 milion Area : Center, south Tehran

Street children phenomenon in Iran, especially in metropolitans, is considerable as the result of these children’s presence all over the streets in different forms such as selling gum, newspaper, flower, tissue paper and shoe shiner.

This phenomenon is one of the most important social pathologies, which continues in an increasing level and affected by social, cultural, political and economic situations and factors.

Increased migration figures indicate a desire to leave ‘home’ in recent years.

Facts & figures demonstrate the increase of population mobility and lack of employment opportunities, especially in rural areas.

Given the current situation, many children who grow up in rural areas become teenagers who migrate from their hometowns to seek employment opportunities and a ‘better life’.

Beside these cases, children who are often traveling between borders without identification documents fall naturally into exclusion from public services such as children's right to education, health and medical insurance.

This exclusion expose them radically to child labor and other forms of exploitation.

Children have become a workforce commodity, and the street serves as an attractive workplace to gain extra income for the family. Urbanization has caused the development of child labor to evolve from a family agriculture business to industrial and illegal work within the street’s informal economy. Due to being young and lack of monitoring devices, these children do not get the true value of their labor.

As far as refugee children are concerned, it is the responsibility of the host country to ensure that refugee children have access to education in the same way as all children in the country.

This point must be kept in mind that the goal here is not to stop voluntary migration but to create a rather more secure and creative environment to control and hopefully reduce child exploitation.

The vast majority of people views street-children negatively and the negative aspects of street-life are constantly focused on by popular literature. The rational choice approach offers an alternative that attempts to identify the positive or adaptive elements of street-life involvement.

A principal implication of this approach is to develop intervention strategies that seek to empower children rather than ´rehabilitate´ them.

By creating urban activators such as portable hubs, stationary learningrooms, mobile theatres etc. as extensions of institutions which are too far to reach these children, communities will be shaped and this dynamic will attract the attention of residents, stakeholders and urban developers to both this area and its children in labor.

The urban development of Oudlajan could be paralleled with street childrens empowerment strategies by alternative approach of linking bottom-up to topdown processes in existing voids of the area and by creating public spaces we could encourage and involve the locals to think and care more about their surroundings.

The region Iran Area: 1,648,000 km2 Population: 76.42 million Fig. 1 Persian Empire 490 B.C. Fig. 2 Socio Political Timeline

1921 Successful coup by Reza Khan

1945-46 Short-lived pro-Soviet separatist regimes

an Iranian officer of the Persian Cossack Brigade

1906 Fundamental laws

(national constitution) adopted by Iranian parliament under Qajar dynesty monarch

1935 First

European

style

Teheran

1925 Reza Khan is crowned 1908 Discovery of oil in

Khusistan - commercial production begins by 1912

and rules as Reza Shah Pahlavi for 16 years

1953 Mosadegh ousted by coup - Shah assumes a

Widespread political, economical and social reforms

Lavish ceremonies mark 25th centennial of founding of Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great

1970

Shah gives up Iran´s claim on Bahrain

more authoritarian rule

1950

1951 British-owned oil industry nationalized

Mosadegh becomes PM

1941 UK and Soviet invade Iran - to counter threat the expanding of German influence - Reza Shah abdicates in favor of son Mohamad Reza Shah

This mosaic of diverse ethnic groups is still visible in Iran today, where Persians compose only 51 percent of the population. Other groups include the Azeris (24 percent), Gilaki and Mazandaranis (eight percent), Kurds (seven percent), Arabs (three percent), Lurs (two percent), Baluchs (two percent), and Turkmens (two percent).

Indo-European Aryan tribes and the Medes ruled the region from Pakistan to the Aegean coast of Turkey from 648 BC until the fourth century BC, when Alexander the Great conquered Persia.

Other invaders — the Greeks, Arabs, Mongols, and Turks — followed, each leaving their mark on Persian culture through their philosophical, artistic, scientific, and religious contributions.

In the later part of the 19th century and in the early 20th century, high-profile Iranian intellectuals were forced to leave the country as a result of their agitation for reform during the period leading up to Iran's Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911.

1971

established in Northern regions

university established in

1900

1961 White Revolution

A bridge in both the geographical and cultural sense of the word, Persia (Iran's name until 1934 when it was changed as part of Reza Shah's modernization efforts), has long connected the great civilizations of Asia, the Near East and the Mediterranean, taking a part to lay the foundations of the modern world.

1989 Death of Khomeini

1979 Shah departs - Khomeini

returns and Islamic Republic proclaimed

1980 Outbreak of war with Iraq

1967 Coronation of Mohamad Reza Shah

1963-65 Ayatollah Khomeini

arrested in Qom for speaking against the Shah - exiled to Turkey, moves to Iraq

1978 Domestic tormoil

sweeps the country in opposition to Shah´s rule and projects

1991 Iran maintains effective neutrality during gulf war - host to million refugees from Iraq

1988 Cease-fire ends 8 year war with Iraq

2000

Emigration movements are part of Iranian history. The Parsis, Persians who followed the Zoroastrian faith, fled to western India after the Arab conquest in AD 936. In the mid-19th century, shortly after the founding of Baha'ism, followers of the faith sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire after facing persecution in Iran.

The important causes of migration from Iran could be summerized in decrease of income, the exploitation of final water resources, lack of new life welfare resources, geographic isolation and undesirable transport systems.

Nomadism to urbanism Beside international migrations, Iranians have had a long history of nomadic migrations inside the country as well. While it is difficult to reconstruct the development of Iranian mountain nomadism in detail, forms of migrational animal husbandry in combination with other forms of human subsistence economies have been practiced for millennia.

Vertical nomadism is a very old way of life in Iran that differentiated in time and space, and developed a variety of genres de vie. It is best described as a specialized offshoot of agriculture that developed along the dry margins of rainfall cultivation.

Animal husbandry and pastoralism in the mountain belt of Iran and its highlands find their ecological basis in very specific environmental conditions. The high subalpine meadows and grasslands of the Zagros and the Alborz, of Kopet-Dag, or the many isolated mountain massifs of central Iran are snow covered in winter and spring. Long winters in combination with steep and rough terrain as well as the spatial remoteness of many of these areas cannot support economically permanent population and do not allow agriculture.

Due to their harsh climatic environment, grazing is restricted to a few months during late spring, summer, and early fall.

Nomadism, therefore, used to be a highly competitive and fullfledged economy, side by side with agriculture and different forms of urban economies.

There is no doubt that the ecological balance of nomadism has been disturbed profoundly, not only by a growing degradation and spatial limitation of the nomadic environments, but also by Iran’s changing political, social, and economic conditions, the impact of which have been equally profound.

Despite expressions of support by the religious leaders, the government considers nomadism an anachronism, since modernization and the compliance with Islam are of prime importance. Although nomads are no longer perceived as an anti-governmental power, the government still sees nomadism as a potential risk factor because nomads are difficult to control.

Iran’s mountain nomads have developed a variety of organizational and spatial patterns to cope with the impacts of modernization and globalization.

The major challenge is to combine their summer and winter pastures into one economically viable unit.

The survival strategies have shaped their existence, giving it a unique lifestyle with an almost infinite variety of adaptations between nomadism, agriculture, and urban life. The traditional temporal structure of their lifestyle can be reduced very simple and almost ubiquitous schemes of spatial behavior: March until May: migration from the winter pastures to the summer pastures May until August/ September: summer pastures August until November: migration from the summer pastures to the winter pastures November until midMarch: winter pastures

Birth of a City Teheran

Fig. 4&5 Topography 1820 Fig. 6 Teheran´s fortification 961

Today, Iran’s Capital, although far from other big cities of the country, is located in an ancient strategic crossroads. On the one hand it is situated on the route from Anatolia (Turkey) to India and China along Alborz mountains and on the other hand, at the intersection of roads that extend from southern parts of the country along Zagros mountains (Persian Gulf, Shiraz, Isfahan) and from the west (Mesopotamia, Qasr-e Shirin, Kermanshah, Hamedan).

Teheran is located between the southern hills of Alborz and the Northern parts of Kavir desert , sitting on the ancient and famous City of Rey. Today, Iran’s Capital, although far from other big cities of the country, is located in an ancient strategic crossroads, connecting the east to the west.

Tehran became capital in 1786, when Mohammad Khan had his coronation

Iran’s Agha Qajar there

In 1806, P.A Jaubert estimated Tehran’s population at 30000, and Ouseley in 1811 enumerated 300 mosques and schools in Tehran.

Ker Porter, however, argues This region is a relatively that Tehran’s population smooth and very fertile was 10000 during summer area which makes it an and 70000 during winter attractive place to live. because many escaped its unpleasant and dusty climate The City of Ray and its in summer to villages on perimeter up to a radius of Alborz mountain slopes 100 km has been the birth in Shemiranat shahrestân. place of a human civilization known as ´Central Iranian These seasonal migrations Plateau´ which dates had major impacts on the back to 12000 years ago. city life until 1960 when the use of kerosene heaters Until the Moghul Invasion, made permanent residence Tehran was still a small in higher altitudes and village, and as evidenced greener parts of the City’s by historical documents, northern quarters possible. the villages of Doulab, According to “Thomas Tajrish and Vanak were Herbert”, Tehran’s fortification more important than Tehran. earlier surrounded a fairly In 961, king Tahmasb, of small town with only 4.2 Safavid dynasty, built a km2 area even though it wall around the city, which had 114 towers and 4 gates. indicates that until then the city In 1727 A.D., the City was in the form of fortresses, had a population of 3000 protected by its underground households, which was smaller houses from invasions. than Kashan. However, it had After many historical ups and a major marketplace (bazar) downs, Ray was demolished and good quality buildings

by Moghuls in 617 AH. that were used as temporary Although ithe city bacame residence for kings and rulers prosperous again under who happened to pass through the Safavi rule, it never the City on their way to achieved its past status again. other regions of the country.

Beginning of urbanism

Fig. 7 Safavid Tehran 1842 Based on Barzin map Fig. 8 Nasseri Tehran 1892 Based on Abdul-Ghafar ma Fig. 9 Tehran 2014

In 617, Yaghoot Homavi writes: “Tehran is one of the villages of Rey, with an approximate distance of 6 kilometers. The village is very big and the dwellings are built underground. No one can gain access to the houses of the villagers except the people of Tehran themselves. The village has 12 neighborhoods and many orchards and prayer halls.

8

Thus, during the Qajar Dynasty, Tehran became Iran’s Capital; albeit informally. By construction of new buildings inside the Arg (citadel), Karim Khan’s palace was expanded.

In the early years of the 20th century, despite of its development and higher population, Tehran didn’t look like a Capital and still had the traditional feel of a small town with little motor car traffic. At the same period, cities such as Tabriz had a more international character than Tehran. However, after the constitutional Revolution (Mashruteh) in 1906 and the discovery of oil in 1908, Iran found a new international role and, Tehran rapidly grew out other cities. Tehran’s population at the beginning of the Pahlavi Dynasty was around 500,000.

The City expanded to 46 km2 and began to spread out beyond the surrounding walls.

The measures taken by Reza Shâh Pahlavi (1925-1941) to develop Tehran came too late and most remained unfinished by the end of his reign.

Nevertheless, his efforts in this regard were profound and irreversible. For the first time in 1930, the laws and regulations that promised the beginning of a new era in urban development policy were enacted, aiming at spatial expansion of the City by removal of its fortifications, developing its internal functioning by broadening the streets in Hausmann’s style in Paris, and establishing a modern political and administrative center in the western side of Golestân palace inside the Qajar Arg.

Urban Growth Tehran today Area: 686.3 km² Population: 14 million Fig. 9: Urban expansion

In addition to its international migration pattern, Iran also exhibits one of the steepest urban growth rates in the world according to the UN humanitarian information unit. As a consequence of the breakdown of the economy of villages in the wake of the Second World War, many villagers rushed to cities especially Tehran and during the years 1939 and 1956 Tehran experienced a population boom.

The Iran-Iraq War contributed to rapid urban growth, as millions of people headed for large towns and ultimately settled there.

Source : TGC map

According to the 1867 census, three fourth of the population of Tehran were migrants, of which 5.4% of the total population were military men.

Only 26.6% of the population was native to Tehran. This high number of migrants in those days was due to the conditions of Tehran as the new capital.

With the inclusion of the military migrants and the sex ratio, this indicates that Tehran was a migrant-receptive city.

Another factor contributing to urban growth is a lack of investment (and hence few jobs) in rural areas due to the government's industrialization policies.

For the time being, mass urbanization is partly to blame for the increased prevalence of slum areas, high unemployment rates, poor public services, and a depressed economy.

In 1973, the Greater Tehran was formed, which included the villages surrounding the city of Tajrish and the cities of Vanak and Rey to which “Kooye Siman� had been annexed during the years 1956 to 1966. The new territory made better opportunities available for prospective migrants.

Increasingly the people migrating to Tehran come not only from villages but from other cities as well.

These migrants live mostly in the villages of Tehran due to high costs of living in Tehran. As a result, the rural areas of Tehran have increasingly become urbanized and populated..

The Site Oudlajan Area: 150 ha Population: 21 254

Fig. 11 Tehrans core Fig. 12 Zones Fig. 13 Location of oudlajan Fig. 14 Oudlajan streetscape

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After the destruction of the Safavid rampart, the construction of main streets began; Amir Kabir avenue at the North East, Ray´s Jomeh Bazar at the South and Naser Khosrow in the West part of the neighborhood defined the borders of this area - meanwhile the internal structure of markets and streets still remained tight and untouched.

Oudlajan is one of the five main neighborhoods of old Teheran along with Sangalaj, Bazar, Chalmydan and Shahtahmaseb Arg they create the historical core of Tehran. City´s expansion has been gentle and natural.

At the present century there has been a gradual growth in the first four decades and a rapid expansion in the last forty years.

The area with the most severe population decline, aging tissues and structures, poor permeability, lack of services and infrastructure, low health and environmental quality, recession in property values, particularly because of restrictions on building density and various other social anomalies are characteristics which have resulted in disidentification of this area.

Municipal Boundaries as on 1933 Municipal Boundaries as on 1981 Water Wells ********* Goverment Buildings Public spaces gardens

Oudlajan is located at Zone 12, District 2 in Teherans master plan and based on dominant activities 3 zones has been established - Eastern or The Shrine zone with residential dominance, Middle or Paamenar zone with commercial performance, production, storage and the Western sections or Naser Khosrow and Marvi Alley with dominant commercial operations.

1:10000

Naser Khosro/Marvi Zone Commercial

Paamenar Zone Commercial, storage, production

Yahya Shrine Zone Residential

The Fabric Valuable historical city centers can mainly be detected in 3 groups; dilapidated fabric, intermediate zone, and the suburb. Accordingly, issues and needs in the physical characteristics of the economic and social environment, and a range of emergency interventions in each of these three groups are substantially different from one another.

Oudlajan restoration strategies with an emphasis on social and participatory ways, could enhance, modernize and equip the old neighborhood into a new center again, built upon its own characteristics

Oudlajan district being one of five nucleus historic neighborhoods in Tehran, locating at the very center of the city and neighboring with the main Bazar, is facing severe population atrophy, decline in sustainable activities, lack or absence of urban services and infrastructure, conversion of residential units to the warehouse and workshops, social disorders and delinquency.

A validated micro economy, reliable and modern popular activities and the promotion of cultural activities are among the necessities to consider in revitalization of this historical center . .

Providing oudlajan with equipment and executive management to play again an active role in sustaining as urban center, is particularly critical.

The project scope Northern Edge: Amir Kabir street, Parliment , Baharestan Western Edge: Adjacent to Nasserie St. - Oldest street of Teheran, Marvi St., and in the next layers lies Economics, Finance and Justice Ministries + CityPark Eastern shore: Ray Street - part of the first rampartShrine of Yahya as one of the core activity hubs of the area , enforcing markets and a religious school in the area + residential neighborhoods South Shore: Backyard of Bazar, markets and micro economic branches of it spread throughout the area + historic neighborhoods of Chalmydan

Based on a census in 2003 about 20 thousand job opportunities exist in oudlajan while the number of employed residents in the neighborhood hasent exceeded from 7815 people. The first assumption is that the other 12 thousand job vacancies are taken by ousiders coming to oudlajan daily for work.

A closer study on these two factors ( the number of jobs and the number of employed residents ) in three areas of oudlajan - eastern, middle and western - suggestes that the situation is quite different and even opposite within these boundaries. This confirms why the number of employed residents at the eastern side is higher than the range of job opportunities, while at the middle and western zones job opportunities increase from the number of employed residents.

The daily exit status of employed residents at the eastern area explains why this zone is used rather as a resting space, a dormitory, compared to the middle and west areas which absorb labor force during the day.

In this way the Shrine zone is more populated thus alive during the night and Pamanaar and Marvi zones are more dynamic during day time.

This scenario could explain the existance of addicts in the middle and western zones during the nights and their migration to the east side in the day light.

Restrictions on hight construction, 7.5m, in the historical fabrics and ownership of many properties by municipality failing to provide proper services are only a few issues keeping the development static.

The present

NetworkPatterns

PhysicalPatterns

MovementPatterns

Significant number of cisterns, springs, canals and underground refrigerators remain as network of worn utility - due to age and lack of maintance.

a hierarchical spatial coherence with the physical structure of definite shape in the following neighborhoods and neighborhood market near the castle rampart along the Safavid castle.

Existance of the very first streets of Old Tehran together with original markets and branches of Bazar creates a radiating form of marketplace in this area.

Existing hierarchy of transitions into the deeper tissue of the site with many dead end streets plus public places and services are disrupted by high density and heavy traffic.

EconomicPatterns Active western edge and the emergence of other commercial edges in the beginning of the century due to built infrastructure, has had a great influence on economical activities and the establishment of diverse platforms within this tissue, especially in the middle section the continuity of business operations and market-based activities makes this area an attractive destination point.

S o c i a l P a t t e r n s

DemographicPatterns

Due to the production workshops spread throughout the middle and west oudlajan, child labor plays an important yet invisible role. The diverse demographic status of this area creates an attractive destination point for the working class, immigrants, and micro economy activities.

There is a concentration of commercial units and units waiting to be converted into commercial uses. The residential sections in these areas are mostly active in commercial functions. For example, many residents are involved in wholesale businesses, which are housed there. From a socioeconomic perspective, migrants living in the central areas are of moderate means and those living in the margins are mostly poor.

One of the most prestigious residential neighborhoods of old Tehran decorated with official residences of Lords and dignitaries combined with textures of particular social identities such as Jewish and Arab neighborhoods in the west and Sadat neighborhood at east oudlajan.

In the framework of the historical center, the socio-cultural diversity of this area is authentic.

The voids

Fig. 24 Void map Fig. 25 Road map

Statistics for utilization of landuse are as follows: R e s i d e n t i a l : 44% and 29 % of the area C o m m e r c i a l : 18% and 15.7% of area P r o d u c t i o n Wo r k s h o p s : 17.2% and 12.6% of the area A b a n d o n e d La n d : 13% and 12% of area G r e e n s p a c e : 5% and 1% of total area I n f r a s t r u c t u r e : 16% of the total area

The statistics show the considerable frequency of commercial, warehouse and disorganized/polluting workshops active in production activities, especially at the western and central sectors of oudlajan (28 % of the area) .

Transformation of damaged properties and vacant warehouses into gathering places for addicts has resultet in demolition of many valuable buildings by the municipality thus creating passive voids throughout the area..

A substantial portion of neighborhood consists of degraded, abandoned or barren lands (nearly 13%) which is the proof of the severity in deterioration of historical neighborhoods and it could be seen as existing opportunity for further developement and revitalization of oudlajan.

Building of various sports centers with long construction period and high costs for the use of locals is an example of creating disfunctional arenas based on top-down analysis.

Downturn in real estate due to inappropriate social and cultural conditions and limitations on the height of construction max 7.5 m - has resulted in lack of investment due to the lack of guarantee to return the investment or profit.

TheVision The municipality is facing many difficulties concering the complexity of oudlajan.

The fragmented proportions of its lands through out this dense area plus the variation of these sites in size makes it hard if not impossible to create one program to cover both social and physical issues.

The general state of buildings and infrastructure is in a decay state and the sizes of its plots are rather too small for big benefits.

These waiting sites are in constant change of usage and reform to adapt to new situations.

Therefore instead of creating new temporary usage definitions of what these sites can be, we can define an open end value system.

A system where the focus is on making the most out of the least - the injection of a good quality and responsive value into various contexts - having in mind to leave the end scenario open - means not to hesitate to change the context and create new scenarios without destroying the existing qualities. Yet it is of outmost importance not to be too romantic about perservation and not to preserve qualities only for the sake of perservation.

Transforming the space of circulation into a space for the appearance of the subject - street children - is the main goal of this project.

Small-scale interventions; a gradual and measured proccess - proceeding with plans to evaluate each measure and improve future actions process feedback and rotationcreating educational labs for street children of the area.

Ensuring the participation of the people (residents and employees) - to create the feeling of ownership - together with the local institutions, public sector, private sponsors and state developers is essential.

Urban acupuncture as a method is focused on creating impulses throughout the district; by organizing events, work-education centers and further safe houses for women and childten To create a sustainable permeability and to enhance services providing access to the internal networks in order to link the physical and spatial factors between local and peripheral cells are in the program.

Portable Labs

Fig. 27 Concept model

Who controls public space and what sense of responsibility do community members feel toward one another or to the place where they live?

Based on the analysis above, there are several reasons to choose a mobile solution among others for oudlajan´s issues.

Maintaining socially and ecologically engaged work can create meaningful architecture.

Participatory experience forms an ephemeral social sculpture where no expertise is required.

First and foremost is the fact of existing waiting sites in the area. Due to their small size and lack of proper infrastructure between them, the municipality is left with no option but to put them on wait for a miracle to happen!

Conversation is our primary research and creative tool.

Participant-driven projects promote independent thinking and create a platform from which any individual can offer an opinion, by which each individual is an expert of her/his experience.

By highlighting the everyday, such as walking, eating, learning or storytelling, activities become performances.

Mobility can unhinge the expected roles we take in shared city spaces and mobile structures can become a new norm for voids when they work.

How can we use mobile projects to reimagine urban and rural spaces that are normally closed to creative gestures and public services?

The other factor is the population of Oudlajan itself, being mostly migrants and seasonal workers, this area experiences waves of migration at least twice a year, if not eveyday by the addicts.

The other important factor is the characteristics of street children. These children are on the go for several hours a day and their mobility helps them to find jobs and customers at every corner of the city.

Another factor is the distance between essential institutes and happenings to this area and therefore street children.

Hence every stationary institution could have its mobile equivalent - either as an extension of that institution or as a separate portable equivalent in rather poor districts of Tehran in order to signal an auxillary spot.

Mobile Theatre An example

During the reasearch period on street children and their activities in Teheran, I got involved with a group of artists who´ve been practicing theatre - drama therapy - with street children.

With the use of theatre techniques they tend to facilitate personal growth and promote mental health by re-acting their life stories they try to solve a problem, achieve a catharsis, delve into truths about themselves and understand the meaning of personally resonant images to explore and transcend unhealthy personal patterns of behavior and interpersonal interaction - an expressive therapy.

These stories usually take place in areas such as oudlajan where street children work or reside.

To bring out these performances from conventional theatre halls to the streets where these stories actually took place, would create a more tactile context for their storytelling plus their audience will not only be the artist elite but rather people who may have experienced the same traumas.

A mobile theatre; where the action of a play not only takes place in a non-theatrical structure, but in more than one space, with the actors moving from one space to the next, and usually with the audience following them around.

It is characteristic of theatre that while most of today’s theatre takes place in structures created for such dramatic productions, some take place in other venues, and have done so since the beginning of theatre itself.

The ancient Greeks created tragedies in threshing circles which became the orchestras of their earliest dithyrambic performances. Medieval and early Renaissance theatre was staged in the streets and in innyards, requiring no more than “two boards and a passion” according to Lope de Vega.

Street Theatre too has become, since that time, a similar venue for dramatizations, particularly with a political thrust, all over the world.

Education Alaleh Navaii 1982 july 26

Master courses The Auxillary Kindergarten China, Guangzhou Tutor: Cecilie Anderssen The main approach of this project was to utilize a new corridor system with urban catalyst programs inserted into the existing urban issues - at an urban village, Shigang, and its voids - in order to open up the blockages of urban development urban acupuncture, . The whole system intends to serve as the starting point for the self reparation of the urban issue.

We picked a void, rather a dump, and turned it into a playground for migrant kids of Shigang.

Complex Context La Tourette, France Tutors: Kalle Grude, Andre Fontes, Arild Wåge The aim of this project was to create a room for reflection not only for the use of the Dominican friars, residents of La Tourette convent, as well for the public - to serve in future as a source of income for the residents.

Eco Urbanism Bergen, Norway Tutor: Luke Engleback Research on ecological issues concerning the transformation of macro organisms and its effects on human life. The project imagines Bergen in year 2100 after an apocalyse where millions migrate to Bergen - gentrification of the city. Further SiloPlant was created as an alternative vertical garden to feed 5000 people in Laksevåg.

2006 -

Nye Sandviksveien 1 5003 Bergen Norway +47 911 33 799 alalehnavaii@gmail

Work experience

2013 Atrim Studio Tehran

Curator

2012

2012

Abadi Architects Junior architect

Auroville International Junior architect

2010

2009

2008

2007

Bergen

2005

Tehran Art Academy Tehran B.A. International Bacc. Oslo Oslo 2001

College 1999 Mahdavi Educ. complex Tehran Atrium

CV

2011

Bergen Arkitektskole

Tehran

Kamal Arch. University Teacher Assistant

Noshahr

Residency - Auroville Farm India 2011 Focus: Permaculture

- Art House Tacheles Berlin 2010 Focus: Metal sculpt

Auroville

Benin Architects Junior Architect

Benin

USF Verfte - Natt jazz Sound Installation

Bergen

IKM ´Flip-out´ installation

Oslo

Artaj Interior Design Designer

Tehran

2006 Oslo National Theatre Oslo

Scenograph assistant