2019 Iranica Conference

2019 Iranica Conference Mirrors of Iran: A Continuum of Architectural Heritage PROGRAMME 11.00—11.05am Welcome to SLNSW, Acknowledgement of Country - Oriana Acevedo 11.05—11.10am Chairperson, Opening Remarks. Dr Zahra Taheri: Persian Studies Programme Convenor, Centre for Arab & Islamic Studies, Australian National University (ANU) College of Arts & Social Sciences. Dr Zahra Taheri studied classical and contemporary Persian literature in Iran at Pahlavi (Shiraz) University; received her Master's degree in Persian studies from Research Institute of Persian Culture, Tehran and her PhD from the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. During the last two decades she has taught Persian literature, language, Iranian history and culture, and Gender and Culture courses in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley (USA), the Department of Persian Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Japan), and ANU. 11.10—11.15am Opening of Conference. Masoud Rowshan: President of the Association of Iranica in Australasia. 11.15—11.50am Professor Miles Lewis - Iranian Vernacular Building Traditions There is a great variety of topography and climate in Iran, and a corresponding variety of vernacular architecture, but it is the architecture of the eastern desert which is most characteristically Iranian, and is the main focus of this paper. It displays ingenuity in dealing with 1 the problems of water supply, heat, and the lack of regular building materials such as timber and stone. The oldest known water filtration system in the world has been found at Chogha Zanbil, but not hitherto understood. The qanat is characteristically Iranian, but not in fact an Iranian invention, whereas the ice house possibly is. The badgir or wind tower is also characteristically Iranian, though related to devices such as the malqaf of Afghanistan. The characteristic building material in the east is mud brick (adobe), and it is very difficult to build arches and roofs in this material without even sufficient timber to support them during construction. This is overcome by means such as the pitched vault and the gypsum rib. Finally, despite all of these difficulties, a remarkable decorative tradition has evolved, including the colourful tilework which Iran shares with the rest of the Islamic world, and other elements such as multicoloured glazing which are more local. Professor Miles Lewis is an architectural historian with special interests in vernacular architecture and the history of building construction. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Emeritus Professor of the University of Melbourne, and an honorary life member of the Comité International d’Architecture Vernaculaire. He has supervised Iranian PhD students dealing with the relationships between Iranian and European architecture, has lectured at the University of Tabriz, and was the UNESCO / ICOMOS referee for the World Heritage listing of Yazd. 11.50 - 12.25pm Associate Professor Javier Alvarez-Mon - Wisdom from Iran’s Past: Elamite Vernacular Architecture in the Age of Global Warming The study of vernacular architecture, sometimes called “architecture without architects”, focuses on the effect that climate conditions and ecosystems have on the architectural practices of a particular group of people. This lecture takes us back around four thousand years to the ancient city of Susa, the western capital of the Elamite kingdom. Two main problems confronted the Elamite builder in designing and planning for the extremely hot, arid, condition of the south west Iranian plain: to ensure protection against heat and to provide adequate cooling. Here we shall examine large households and the surrounding urban tissue of ancient Susa, defining their characteristics and articulating the degree to which their successful adaptation and responses to a harsh environment offer practical as well as ideological insights to address the most important global challenge of our generation: climate change. Dr. Javier Álvarez-Mon Sánchez, a native of Spain, holds degrees in ancient Near Eastern art and Archaeology from L’ École du Louvre (Paris) and the University of California at Berkeley, and in Religious Studies and Theology from the Graduate Theological Union and Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. A 2003 Fullbright-Hays (DDRA) Fellow and 2014–2018 Future Fellow (Australian Research Council), he has taught at the University of Sydney (Australia) and is presently Associate Professor in Near Eastern Archaeology and Art at Macquarie University, Sydney (Australia). He is author and co-editor of numerous articles dedicated to the ancient Iranian civilizations of Elam and early Achaemenid Persia, as well as several books: The Arjan Tomb (2010, Peeters), Elam and Persia (2011, Eisenbrauns); The Elamite World (2018, Routledge), and Monumental Reliefs of the Elamite Highlands, a Complete Inventory and Analysis, from the 17th to 6th Century BC (2019, Eisenbrauns and Pennsylvania State University Press). 12.25 – 1.00pm Dr Ali Mozaffari - From an uncertain future to an unpredictable past: the search for an architectural response to culture and development. The late Pahlavi Period witnessed growing attention to the past and its use in contemporary development. In architecture and the built environment, the exemplary images of such designs include the work of leading Iranian architects such as Hossein Amanat, Nader Ardalan and Kamran Diba, and their iconic designs, including the Shahyad, the Shushtar New Town and the Iran Center for Management Studies (nowadays the Imam Sadiq University in Tehran). I suggest that in these projects, an architectural heritage is produced and communicated in the hope to mitigate the conditions of a developing, hence modernizing country with that of its cultural traditions. Here I work 2 with the idea of heritage as a cultural process that pertains to uses of the past in the present, which is therefore inherently political and dissonant. By dissonant, I mean that it is bound to have competing meanings at any given time. However, resisting the lure of a pure focus on and deconstruction of the political aspects of heritage—a tendency that has at times lead to arid discussions and broad-brush dismissals—I will be examining the co-production of the past and the drive behind it, i.e. development. The exemplary projects of this period are the architectural manifestations of local concerns as well as international debates. To illustrate this point, I will focus on a series of architectural congresses that were held in Iran between 1970 and 1976 and included high-profile international delegates. These were forums for discussing solutions to the country’s need to reconcile development with its tradition(s), the latter an object of enquiry and uncertainty in its own right. The significance of these congresses is twofold: as a continuation of post-war international efforts in finding socially-relevant architecture and as a watershed that influenced architectural debates, thinking, and production inside Iran in the subsequent decades. Dr.Ali Mozaffari is a Fellow of the Australian Research Council (DECRA) in the Alfred Deakin Institute, at Deakin University, Australia and an Adjunct Research Fellow with the Australia-Asia-Pacific Institute, at Curtin University, Australia. The focus of his work is on the politics of heritage, social movements and the making of cultural heritage, heritage and the built environment, and histories and design of architecture in Iran and more broadly in West Asia. His recent work includes ‘Designing a Revolutionary Habitat: Tradition, Heritage and Housing in the Immediate Aftermath of the Iranian Revolution– Continuities and Disruptions’. Fabrications 28, no. 2 (May 2018): 185–211, co-authored with Nigel Westbrook and the edited volume World Heritage in Iran: Perspectives on Pasargadae. Abingdon: Routledge (2016). He is co-editor of Berghahn’s, Explorations in Heritage Studies book series. 1.00 – 1.15pm Q & A - Professor Miles Lewis, Associate Professor Javier Alvarez-Mon, Dr Ali Mozaffari. Moderator – Dr Zahra Taheri 1.15 – 2.05pm LUNCH BREAK 2.05 – 2.20pm LIVE MUSIC - Farrukh Sereshti Ensemble: Siamak Farrukh Sereshti, leader of the ensemble specialises in Santour playing. He was raised in a family of artists and initially learned to play santour from his father, a Master of this instrument. Siamak immigrated to Australia in 2010 and jointly established Madaktu Academy of Music with Jamal Farrukh Seresht as its Manager. This Academy trains musicians and performs throughout Australia. Siamak has a Bachelor degree from the Australian International Conservatory of Music and has been accepted for a Master of Music & Film studies at Macquarie University. He has performed as a Composer and Arranger with a number of well-known singers such as Shahram Nazeri, Ali-Reza Ghorbani, Aziz Shahrukh and others. Bahádor Ghahramáni – Tanbour & Tár Player. Bahador learnt these instruments in his family environment to a high level of proficiency. He is a respected performer of Mystical and Kurdish Music. Ali Noralahi – Tombak & Daf Player. He was raised in a musical environment and learnt from family members who were known musicians. He has performed extensively with Madaktu Musical Groups. Musical Pieces to perform: 1. Sághi Námeh with poem by Sadi: Human beings are members of a whole, In creation of one essence and soul. 3 If one member is afflicted with pain, Other members uneasy will remain. 2. Kurdish Music based on Ferdowsi - Sháhnámeh, , the book of Kings 2.20 – 2.50pm DOCUMENTARY – Taq Kasra. Director – Pejman Akbarzadeh “Taq Kasra: Wonder of Architecture” is the first-ever documentary film on the world’s largest brick vault. The palace is a symbol of the Persian Empire in the Sasanian era (224-651 AD), when a major part of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) was part of Persia. Taq Kasra was in serious danger of ISIS attacks in 2014-2016 and this was the main motivation for documentary maker Pejman Akbarzadeh, based in the Netherlands, to travel to Iraq twice and film the arch before it was potentially destroyed. Pejman Akbarzadeh is a documentary maker, journalist, and pianist, based in the Netherlands.

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