Estimated reading time: 2 min
The Cultural Institute of Bonyad Museum has selected RMJM Arta Tehran to provide the interior design for the Iran Historical Car Museum. The studio, appointed as architectural consultant for the Museum in August 2016, is now leading the development of the entire project which covers a 22,000 square metre site.
Situated approximately 20km west of the capital city, Tehran, the Iran Historical Car Museum currently houses one of the largest and most valuable car collections in the region, comprising sports cars, limousines, motorcycles and carriages owned by the last Shah of the Pahlavi Dynasty, Mohammad Reza Shah.
RMJM’s concept for the interior design of the Museum seeks to create an atmosphere where the cars on display are seen as historical emblems. The linear corridors designed along the display paths function as transitional spaces, transforming the Museum into a place where visitors can experience the passing of the time and witness how the present follows the past.
The Car Museum will also have wider benefits for the area where it’s located, adding a sense of culture and history to the industrial zone. For this reason, RMJM Arta Tehran is currently collaborating with curator and art expert Peter Fisher, Director of the Paul Klee Centre in Bern between 2001 and 2016 and, prior to that, Director of the Art Museum of Lucerne. Mr Fisher is deeply active in the lively and diverse art scene in Iran, developing projects of mutual exchange between Iranian and European art.
Arta Rostami Ravari, Managing Director of RMJM Arta Tehran, will serve as lead architect on the project and has expressed her delight at the announcement: “You can feel a temporal atmosphere which makes the past alive. The historical cars are manifested as living cultural events which will have significance for visitors. By experiencing their own living past, the visitors may set boundaries for future hopes. The whole design process for historizing the visitors aims to bring the past alive in the present. I think this be the way for many projects over the coming years in this country. We are linked inextricably to the past even as we move forward with new technology and design processes. Architecture in Iran has the chance to offer the best of both worlds.”