Perfecting Life in the Islamic Republic: Tourism and the Construction of New Resorts and ‎Gated Communities in the Caspian Region

This paper explores the development of the new city of Namak Abrud in northern Iran. Namak ‎Abrud is located twelve kilometers east of the city of Chalus in the Mazandaran Province, covering ‎an area of 650 hectares.‎

In this paper, I will look at the development of the plan, from its initial proposal. The area was first ‎nurtured in the late 1950s by the Iranian-American entrepreneur Jamshid Javanshir, whose vision ‎for the resort city was formed after a visit to the Hearst Castle in California. Next, I examine the ‎official master plan jointly proposed by the London-based architectural firm Howard Humphreys ‎and the Iranian DAZ. In the 1970s, Humphreys and DAZ designated a portion of the area into a ‎tourist hub. Bisected by the Chalous-Ramsar Road, the northern side was devoted to private villas. ‎The south of the road, became home to the Caspian Hyatt Hotel (completed in 1974) and a few ‎apartment complexes. ‎

The construction of the city was halted during the 1978-79 revolution and the subsequent Iran-Iraq ‎war (1980-88). During this time the tourist industry in Iran declined, due to both ideological and ‎financial reasons. It took nearly two decades for investors to reboot the constructions. Today the ‎area is matured. Due to strict Islamic rules— prohibiting, for example, co-op beaches or bars and ‎dance clubs— public tourist activities in the area are limited. The city is primarily known for its ‎unique aerial tramway, offering aerial tram tours, which start at the Caspian shore and end into the ‎dense forest of the Alborz heights. ‎

With its long and convoluted design trajectory, Namak Abrud epitomizes the history of tourist and ‎leisure architecture in Iran, during the country’s two commonly assumed conflicting episodes of ‎rapid westernization and strict Islamicization. Despite sanctions and broken ties with the international ‎community, nonconformist Iranian architects create alternative spaces of entertainment by turning ‎inward, devoting attention to the design of the interiors of the villas. By situating architecture in the ‎context of Islamic Republic's neo-liberalist economy, the paper illuminates a ‎lesser known aspect of design practices in Iran.‎