Inconsistent Perceptions of Early Modern Iranian Architecture

The secular and patriotic character of Iranian government officials during the 1920s and 1930s, and their successes in the modernisation of the traditionally structured Persian society and government have established the first Pahlavi’s image as influential as a Nietzschean Übermensch in the ideology of Iranian nationalism. This has confused some Iranian architectural historians, who exaggerate his impact on early modern Iranian architecture.Three main architectural tendencies can be identified during the first Pahlavi period: Europeanising and modern designs by foreign architects and Iranian architects trained in the Europe; ambivalent westernising and pre-Islamic Iranian designs by traditional builders and Iranian architects; and eclectic Iranian revivalism by western orientalists, who had become familiar with the architectural heritage of Iran. The latter group used both pre-Islamic and Irano-Islamic architectural elements in their works without any ideological prioritisation.The assumption, that politics, and the Shah’s attitudes in particular, were responsible for the increasing use of pre-Islamic motifs during the first Pahlavi period, will be examined on the one hand by studying the architectural taste of Shah in his palace buildings and a number of public buildings, which show that of the elite in the government. As well, Iranian exhibition pavilions, which were intended to symbolically express the government’s desired image of Iran to the world, will be analysed

Keywords:

Modern , Iran , Architecture , Pahlavi , Nationalism