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AbCT: Apartment No. 1

Designed by Architecture by Collective Terrain in Mahallat, Iran, this apartment building — one of the finalists of this year's Aga Khan Award for Architecture — reuses discarded stone in the façades and internal walls.

Tehran-based architecture studio AbCT — Architecture by Collective Terrain has designed an apartment building in Mahallat, Iran, which has been selected as one of the finalists of the 2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. The project adapts to its context — the majority of Mahallat’s economy is engaged in the business of cutting and treating stone — by reusing leftover stones for both exterior and some interior walls. In a positive outcome, since its completion in 2010, the project has led to the increasing adoption of stone recycling by local builders.

The five-storey structure comprises two ground-level retail spaces and eight three-bedroom apartments above. Its austere prismatic form is balanced by the warmth of the natural materials. Small windows are shielded by triangular stone protrusions, and larger ones have wooden shutters that allow residents to regulate light and temperature levels.