3. Space-in-Between

In this chapter, I focus on the case of Iran as a place where the quest for Critical Regionalist architecture and urban design has acquired a singular character, thanks to the work of leading architects such as Houshang Seyhoun, Kamran Diba, Nader Ardalan and Hossein Amanat. I then go on to discuss how in an era dominated by modernization and universalization, a sense of resistance emerged that attempted to reconcile Iranian-Islamic culture and Modernity, to present a critical reading of both Western and Islamic interpretations, and to find a middle way that neither rejected the West and its advantages nor neglected the history and culture of the nation. In this way, an intermediate approach appeared in which two extremes coexist in a continuous but generative tension, a situation which helped to bridge the gap between West and East, Modernity and Tradition, the universal and the particular, civilization and culture and thus introduced a Critical Regionalist architecture and urban design that garnered worldwide recognition. This approach to place-making, which I refer to as the ‘space-in-between’ approach, is mainly observable in the works of a number of leading architects and urban designers such as Kamran Diba, Nader Ardalan, and Hossein Amanat and will be studied under different themes such as the public sphere, the poetics of construction, bodily experience, architectural archetypes and the dialectic of presence in detail, supported by different illustrations. Introducing the term ‘urban oasis’, I conclude that this Critical Regionalist approach created a perfect ‘urban oasis’ as a ‘space-in-between’ where, to use Norberg-Schulz’s terminology, setting-into-work of place takes place.