Colorful organic forms have begun to appear on the sparsely populated western shore of Hormuz Island in Iran, rising up out of the island’s distinctive red sand. The initiative of Tehran-based ZAV Architects, the clusters of domed structures—vacation homes, restaurants, cafés and shops—are part of an ongoing project to empower the island’s community while encouraging tourism and investment. Central to the scheme is superadobe, an innovative building technique that uses local resources and that can be carried out by unskilled workers. Pioneered by the late Iranian architect Nader Khalili in the 1980s, superadobe was developed in response to a call from NASA for proposals for settlements that could be built on the moon. Khalili came up with the idea of filling polypropylene sacks with moon dust, which could be stacked in coils to create walls and domed This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty-One Buy Now Related Stories Design Issue 51 John Pawson From the king of minimalism: “I find the essential and get the design down to a point where you can’t add or subtract from it.” Design Interiors Issue 51 Axel Vervoordt Inside the world of Axel Vervoordt. Design Issue 51 Inga Sempé “Minimalism is boring as hell, and on top of that, it’s preachy.” Design Issue 51 Halleroed Meet the giants of Swedish retail design. Design Issue 51 Andrew Trotter The architect and designer on renewing traditional architecture. Design Issue 51 Kim Lenschow The architect who wants to show you how your house works.
Design Issue 51 John Pawson From the king of minimalism: “I find the essential and get the design down to a point where you can’t add or subtract from it.”
