Educational architecture and architectural education: through Dar al-Fonun to Iranianised modern universities

Abstract

Secular educational buildings in Iran were intended to architecturally contrast with the traditional religious buildings (madrasahs), in which Irano-Islamic architecture shaped all of the architectural elements. The European impact upon modern educational buildings started with the establishment of the Dar al-Fonun in 1851 and flourished in the architecture of the University of Tehran in the 1930s. In the late Pahlavi period in the 1960s and the 1970s, international styles were dominant in the architecture of university buildings. The first signs of returning to local vernacular forms and materials can be traced from the early 1970s. Regionalism has shaped the architectural mainstream of Ira..