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.