An Interview With First Winner Of Tiny House 2022 Architecture Competition - Mohammad Saeed Maaleki and Amir Mohammad Hassani
Winners Interviews
01 Mar 2024
We would like to take this opportunity to introduce you with "Mohammad Saeed Maaleki and Amir Mohammad Hassani", from Iran - The First winner of Tiny House 2022 Architecture Competition. They are master's degree-holding architects with more than ten years of professional experience in the fields of construction and designing architecture on small and large scales.
They believe in designing the precise details, while keeping immaculate integrity is a crucial solution.
This house has a simple answer to fulfill all these needs like Spiritual needs, Cultural, Geographical, and Operational. The main issue in the design of this project in the first stage is the lowest level of land occupation, and the second is to be compatible not only with the internal functional needs but also with the surrounding environment. It dances to adapt to the environment, just like the sunflower. It can rotate in the central axis to provide energy and to look around, it moves away from the ground for it’s safety. It changes for life.
Come and take a look at what the first winner "Mohammad Saeed Maaleki and Amir Mohammad Hassani" of Tiny House 2022 with their proposal "YOU DECIDE, What state it should be in" have to say about their experience and journey throughout the competition. For the purpose of this interview they would be referred as M&A to responses, however Volume Zero referred as VZ.
M&A- As two independent architects with alarming attention to details, an intersection of our parallel and overlapping ideas always results in an exciting competition, not just in the process of designing an architectural structure but in any topic involving design, with unexpected and outstanding results. Competition entails putting our concepts up against one another, resulting in a clear solution to the main issue in question.
VZ- Give us brief information of your previous projects/ works/ research/ achievements?
M&A- Our team consists of two master's degree-holding architects with more than ten years of professional experience in the fields of construction and designing architecture on small and large scales, as well as creating items put to use in daily life. Many customers and important national architectural organization have expressed interest in our projects and products.
VZ- What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture vision competitions?
M&A- The architectural and design competition can test your abilities and creativity, push you to think in new ways, and help you get in touch with a huge community of thinkers in this artistic sector. These platforms serve as secret universities for you, allowing you to see the effects of your thinking on a much broader scale.
VZ- What were the challenges you faced while designing for such an architectural space?
M&A- Architecture is always involved with behavioural, functional, and sensory challenges; dynamic spatial design with spatial constraints is an opportunity for the architect to unleash her/his creative mind; the sensation of this task can be challenging at first but eventually fulfilling.
VZ- What was your thought process while designing for the Tiny House Architecture Competition 2022?
M&A- We had the opportunity to compensate for the project's space constraints by creating a somewhat complicated and unique structure when working on the solution for this architectural competition.
VZ- What attracted you to this competition?
M&A- When we first encountered the competition's theme and the brief, we were confronted with the problem of how to design a permanent architectural space with all the qualities of life in such a small and constrained place. Finding an innovative solution to this problem was an interesting task, An architect's inquiring mind might become more active by continually posing new questions and updating their idealistic way of thinking about how to construct an environment. This issue was crucial to us.
VZ- Where does your interest in design come from?
M&A- This type of thinking about how things can be better than what they are makes us interested in developing something new before being interested in issue solving and the essence of design. We generate a better solution.
VZ- What design fundamentals do you believe in?
M&A- The primary concepts that every artist considers during the design process are unity and balance. For us, designing precise details while keeping immaculate integrity is a crucial solution.
VZ- What were your references/ inspiration?
M&A- A wider variety of materials, smells, colors, and everything you see are the sources of inspiration for the principle of design, regardless of books, experiences, media, past and future speculations, and existing ideologies. A creative mind sometimes draws inspiration for his designs from memories he has lost.
VZ- Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
M&A- Balance in all aspects of the design. Color, durability, stability, dimensions and form, sensations, and all aspects that may have the same importance as balance but are useless in its absence.
VZ- What according to you is the key to making your design a success?
M&A- After responding to any architectural design or product that has different feedback with different tastes, we examine the principle of innovation and a new experience of a project that has never existed before from different aspects, the reason for the success of our design is originality and innovation.
VZ- Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, applications, hardware, books, sources of inspiration, etc.?
M&A- We are experts in form and intellectual sketches, we use fast sketching software such as Procreate during brainstorming. Photoshop, Illustrator, Max, and V-ray software to produce visual content. During design, if we encounter weakness, we search in other human experiences (not only architects and artists).
Upcoming Deadlines
Tiny House 2024
Architecture Competition
Early Bird Deadline - 19 Dec 2024
Standard Registration Deadline - 23 Jan 2025
Submission - 30 Jan 2025