Abdolaziz Farmanfarmaian (Persian: عبدالعزیز فرمانفرمائیان; Bam, 1920 – June 21, 2013 Palma de Mallorca) was an Iranian architect, offspring of Iranian nobleman Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma and a member of the Qajar dynasty of Iran. In 1976, the company known as AFFA (Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian and Associates) was created for the design of the Aryamehr Stadium which after the Iranian Revolution in 1979 was renamed to Azadi Stadium.
Biography.
Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian was born is Shiraz in 1920 as the tenth son to Prince Abdol-Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma, at the time Governor General of the province of Shiraz. In 1928, at the age of 8 he was sent to school in France, where he remained for his primary, and secondary school at Lycée Michelet in Paris until 1938. A brief trip to Iran during the short summer of 1935 was his first contact as an adolescent with his family.
His Baccalaureate degree was received in 1938. Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian and three other brothers were extremely lucky that their father, Prince Abdol Hossein Mirza, Had organized for them as guardian Mr. Desiré Roustan a leading French philosopher and writer. They in fact owe to him a happy childhood and excellent education away from home. Architectural studies were initiated in the École Spéciale d'Architecture, where he started to prepare for the Beaux Arts School. The onset of World War II broke the continuity of his studies and had to leave for Iran in 1940 where he stayed until 1945. During this period of worldwide uncertainty he worked at different jobs such as: Teheran Municipality, Karnsaks, and the Ministry of Culture (Vezarate Pishehonar).
In 1942 he married with Leila Gharagozlou and formed a family having a son.
After the end of World War II Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian came back to Paris with his family to continue his studies and was admitted at the Atelier of Mr. Nicot at the world-famous Ecole des Beaux Arts where he received his degree in 1950. The final project presented as his thesis was the design for a modern caravanserai to be situated in southern Iran. This project received the prize for the best thesis (diploma) of the year.
In 1950 Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian moved back to Teheran for good until 1979, where he proceeded to create one of Iran's most important modern-day architectural legacies.
The initial years—The Razmara period followed by the Mossadegh years—were marked by an unstable political and economic situation. Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian started to work as a civil servant at the university of Teheran in the Department of Construction where he became departmental director after a few years. During the same period he was given a professorial chair at the Teheran University school of Architecture (Daneshkadeh Honarhaie Ziba), where he taught students architecture until 1957–58.
In 1954 Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian was admitted by the Plan Organization as a recognized consultant, At this time when Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian designed numerous private residences for his extended relatives, friends and clients. The legal entity that was set up was known as Moassessehye Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian. In 1976, the company known as AFFA, Abdol Aziz Farman-Farmaian and Associates, was created for the design of the Stadium and in accordance with the directive of the Plan Organization to be associated with younger architects. The new associates were belonged to Reza Majd and Farokh Hirbod, both graduates from first-class American universities. AFFA's associates increased with the years.
Farman-Farmaian permanently moved to Paris in 1980 and afterwards to Spain, where he died aged 93. He was also in close contact with his partner Reza Majd, who still practiced architecture until recently in Palma, Mallorca, Spain.
Project list.
In 1975 AFFA's rating in the plan organization was ranked first in Iran as a design and engineering consultant organization.
Works.
Palaces
Tehran Master Plan.
Partnered with the American firm of Victor Gruen Associates, Farmanfarmaian proposed his most important project, the Master plan of Tehran. This comprehensive plan, which was approved in 1968, identified the city problems to be high density, expansion of new suburbs, air and water pollution, inefficient infrastructure, unemployment, and rural-urban migration. To deal with these problems, the consortium envisioned a 25-year planning horizon which encouraged reducing the density and congestion of the city center through polycentric developments around Tehran. Eventually, the whole plan was 'marginalized' by the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the subsequent Iran–Iraq War.
References.
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