It is the belief of Architect Mansour Falamaki that ancient Iranians believed firmly in the infinity of time and that Nowruz (Persian New Year) is that time of year which offers such eternity.

His academic background includes PhD. in Architecture from the Venice School of Architecture, plus Specialization in Restoration of Historical Monuments and Urban Planning from Milan and Rome. He is a University of Tehran (Faculty of Architecture) and Azad University professor, as well as Founder and Director of Faza Scientific and Cultural Institute.

Falamaki has for the first time offered and taught technical courses in Restoration of Historical Monuments at major universities nationwide. His published books and works include Existence and Future of Historical Cities, Revitalization of Historical Monuments and Sites, Theoretical Origins and Tendencies of Architecture, Urban Renovation, and Pablo Picasso, Acquaintance.

Some of the historical monuments he has helped to restore include the Parliament Building, Moqaddam Museum, as well as historical sites in Qazvin and Shiraz, mainly Shah Cheragh Mausoleum, private mansions and citadels. It’s Iranian New Year and a great opportunity to have a quick chat with him:

Do you arrange Haft-Seen for Nowruz?

 

Of course we do. The truth is my family is not what it used to be. My kids have grown up, living with their own families. But we still arrange Haft-Seen - a tabletop (sofreh) arrangement of seven symbolic items traditionally displayed at Nowruz. The table includes seven items all starting with the letter Seen (S) in the Persian alphabet. They are: Sabzeh (wheat, barley, mung bean or lentil sprouts growing in a dish, symbolizing rebirth), Samanu (sweet pudding made from wheat germ symbolizing affluence), Senjed (dried wild olive fruit symbolizing love), Seer (garlic symbolizing medicine and health), Seeb (apple symbolizing beauty), Somaq (sumac fruit symbolizing the color of sunrise), and Serkeh (vinegar symbolizing old-age and patience).

Iranians always celebrate traditional holidays and festivities. Persepolis or Takht-e-Jamshid was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, and one of the most beautiful architectural masterpieces of the second half of the first millennium B.C, where these traditional festivities used to take place. Were there other places to revel such traditions?

This is an important question and I have been looking for an answer for many years now. I am writing a book on the short notes I have taken over the past 40 years. It’s about an ancient Iranian city that could well represent any other city in the world. We only have the great poet Ferdowsi to tell us more about these rituals and practices prior to the advent of Islam. In his Book of Kings, Ferdowsi explains many ancient practices in the form of battles. These were not just military arenas. They were also social, urban congregations in which people used to perform and revel. Of course, we can only speak about them. I have no idea what went on in those pre-Islam days, particularly in the residential urban belts. Some of these places were free and some were occupied. This is because urban areas used to be state-owned tools not communal apparatuses.

Some ancient sites are still standing tall. What characteristic do they have that could exhibit the advanced conducts of early Iranians? For instance, there were Shabestan (underground spaces found in traditional architecture) which were later turned into mosques. There must have been other places like that for people to assemble and revel?

Isolated archeological sites and monuments don’t give away a lot of data. Without first delving into the mindset of Iranian urban life and tradition in those early ages, we cannot talk about them with certainty. We know to some extent about their above-board practices and relations. For instance, oppressive rulers never treated kindly those who wanted freedom and republic.

On the other hand, there are details about individuals trying to find out more about themselves and the world around them. These people were so dominant that they could force rulers to promote and endorse their social ranks.  At the Faza Scientific and Cultural Institute or the Association of Modern Architecture in Iran our main discussions circle around urban life in Iran over the past four thousand years. The idea is to get social scientists together to find out what was exactly happening in those early stages.

As architect you are familiar with time and space. How do you describe Nowruz?

We were the first nation to ever endorse Zarvan as the god of eternal time and space. That belief was striking because time wasn’t perceived as linear and straight in those days. People used to live in the moment, in the eternity of time and space. It was that moment, that instant that used to define everything to them. Nowruz was also one of these great moments, which always took them to eternity.

You must have a distinctive definition for time.

Time has a thoughtful definition. Time is no more than the moment of living in struggle and consciousness. You can define time as awareness in our subconscious. It is in the moment and it is constant. It has both the moment before and the moment after. The moment before is where human being assumes he has just put behind. Time is a thoughtful description for making the decision to think and work.

Does this mean time can only be comprehended if man lives in an original and creative moment?

Absolutely. The devotee of present time is resourceful - all the whiles of a man and the whiles of other men. These creative moments also have echoes that no one can possibly explain how they work. If someone tells you that I want to live in the future based on what I contemplate now, you should say I accede you as a present-time human being. But two days from now you might not see that person with the same sort of interpretation. What about then?

So, we cannot make decisions for future. But if we drag time from the core of future and into the creative now, we can then see the future now. Is that right?

It’s a big IF! Else you could become yet another great Sufi like Molavi.

Speaking of Iranian poets, we would like to give Hafez’s Book of Poems to you as New Year gift.

Hafez has taught us many thought-provoking things. We haven’t lost the continuance of his thoughts. It’s all there in our history. There are many other thought-provoking personalities in our history as well. One of my great honors is that I studied the works of Azizeddin Nasafi. He has a profound influence on Iranian architecture, mainly the confinement of space, the construction of space, and the comprehension of space. It will take years to understand his methodical contexts. He was ahead of his time. One of the foremost 13th-century Persian mystics, Nasafi with his simple manner of explaining God, His Essence, Attributes and Acts provides the Western reader with an overview of all the major interpretations of Iranian thought. He also offers the Western reader a much-needed guide to the speculative and practical dimensions of Sufism.

I once discussed his philosophical observations at an international conference. I explained how he crafted sense and sensibility. For the Western audiences it was astonishing to hear that centuries ago there was this great mystical thinker and scholar in Iran who is the author of works written in a didactic style.

When intellectuals in the West are unable to grasp what Nasafi expounds, they call it the Sixth Sense, which is gibberish. He explains that sense or consciousness determines the thought and subconscious of mankind. There are thousands of other peculiar intellectuals in our history that like Molavi are boundless. We need to go back to the roots of their boundless deliberations and thoughts. We should analyze and examine what they have said in order to globalize our thoughts and ideas.

Any upcoming projects and plans?

We have three national ventures. We have made commitments to help restore some of the ancient sites and monuments in the Free Trade Zones. As part of the Faza Scientific and Cultural Institute, we are a group of 280 engineers and architects that could be of great help in any restoration project. The second project is to organize an international cinema and architecture festival. The third is to continue our annual speech programs. The idea is to discuss technical issues in Iranian architecture and stop thinking that we are behind others in the field. There are many intellectuals in Iran who are conscious and mindful. Hafez is one of them, whose book of poems I just got from you as New Year gift.

Translation by Bobby Naderi