Interview with Kamran Heirati and Tallan Khosravizadeh
Vladimir Belogolovsky met Iranian architects Kamran Heirati and Tallan Khosravizadeh during last year’s World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Singapore, where they presented their Shoupé Mixed-Use project. This striking assembly of dozens of compact, clustered villas hanging off an expressive futuristic structure, spiraling boldly into the sky, won the WAF Award in the Future Projects – Commercial Mixed-Use category. Their follow-up conversation via video call focused on this innovative project and the architects’ philosophy.
KanLan is an award-winning architectural practice operating out of Tehran, Iran, its name a harmonic play on the first names of founders Kamran Heirati and Tallan Khosravizadeh. Heirati started his namesake practice in 2001, shortly after graduating from Azad University in Tehran. Tallan, his wife, completed her studies at Azad University in Hamedan in 2009 and joined the studio in 2015. She became Kamran’s partner in 2019, their blended firm name reflecting that.
Kamran and Tallan have designed and built villas and multifamily housing in Iran, proposed projects in the Gulf region, prepared masterplans in Toronto and Manchester, and are currently working on the Iranian embassy in Tanzania and pro-bono public buildings in Iran, Nigeria, and India. The partners told me they focus on how their buildings emerge from the ground and reinforce their roots with local building traditions, particularly the Iranian courtyard. They avoid designing buildings’ facades, allowing solutions to emerge slowly based on thorough research and analysis of local history, culture, and place.
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