On the request of Mr. Hodjatollah Ayoubi cultural attaché of Iran in Paris, Keyvan Khosrovani accepted to serve as unpaid architect to design a prayer space in the basement of Grand Mosque of Paris built in 1924 at 39 rue Geoffroy Saint Hillarie, Paris 75005, and now part of historical monuments of the French capital.
The design is inspired by Persian architecture and Keyvan’s aim has been to promote in Paris the architecture and art of his homeland. The process has been prolonged for more than two years and in its final phase, unfortunately the project become victim of UN sanctions imposed on Iran. The French presidential election in 2008 negatively impacted the implementation of the design not to mention the added difficulties related to obtaining special visas for Iranian craftsmen.
By invitation of of his friend and colleague Mr. Mohsen-Mirheydar, directing a school redevelopment program Keyvan participated in an exhibition in Tehran. He proposes via series of his own hand drawing panels, architecture for warm and dry climate in Iran. All buildings are north south oriented with all façades filtering the direct sunlight. Classes are double oriented facilitating a natural draft and enjoying a pleasant north light for all classes and labs. Every class has its airy sanitary units cleaned by students at early ages tackling a major problem in Iran and most of developing countries.
Series of various sketches for friends in Portugal, Baraghoun [Iran] but the most important is the proposal for anti-quake architecture for Iran’s rural areas. As most of his projects all dwelling units respect local traditional life style. In order to make this architecture quake resistant, he uses polystyrene, iron net and adobe covering all. The concept is so simple that the villagers themselves can manage to build with a little surveillance of a young architect.
At the request Mr. Ayoubi the cultural attaché of Iran in Paris, Keyvan with few rapid sketches gives his idea for a mausoleum of Shams Tabrizi in Khoy. He proposes the use of local handmade red brick for a series of colonnades in form of sunrays sheltering at the centre Shams’ tomb lit day and night via solar energy obtained by solar panel roofs of the whole construction.