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The Azadi Tower (, ; "Freedom Tower"), also known as the Shahyad Tower (برج شهیاد, ; "Shah's Memorial Tower"), is a monument on Azadi Square in Tehran, Iran. It is one of the landmarks of Tehran, marking the most west entrance to the city, and is part of the Azadi Cultural Complex, which also includes an underground museum..
The tower is about tall and is completely clad in cut marble.Hureau, Jean. Iran Today, 2nd. Ed, editions j.a. It was commissioned by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, to mark the 2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire and completed in 1971. It also serves as the country's kilometre zero.
After winning a competition, architect Hossein Amanat was tasked to design the tower. His ideas were based upon classical and post-classical Iranian architecture, popular influences on art in the 1960s following the White Revolution.
Due to governmental concerns, Amanat was required to sign underneath contracts "on condition of the approval of the Council of Celebrations", which would serve as the client. Amanat planned to contract the British company of Arup Group to assist in the structural design of the tower, as he was impressed by their contributions towards the design and construction of the Sydney Opera House. He initially faced opposition from the head of the council, as well as several conservative and nationalistic Iranian engineers, as he was turning to a foreign engineer for assistance. Despite that, the Shah supported Amanat, sending a letter to the council which would leave the decision to the architect. Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi was also supportive of Amanat's decisions.
Amanat told the BBC World News in an interview that "overall, the building starts from the base and moves up towards the sky." He states that he was inspired to design the tower in this way because he felt that Iran "should be moving towards a higher level." According to him, the main vault is a Sassanian arch representing the classical era, while the broken arch above it is a popular medieval form of arch representing the post-classical era. The "network of Rib vault", which connects the arches together, would represent the connection between classical and post-classical Iran.
Built with white marble from Isfahan province, the monument includes 8,000 blocks of stone. The stones were all located and supplied by Ghanbar Rahimi, who was well known for his extensive knowledge of quarries, often known as the Soltān-e Sang-e Irān ("Iran's Sultan of Stone"). Computers were used to "define its complex woven surfaces," which, at the time, was a new technological technique. The main contractor for the construction of the tower was the MAP Company, supervised by Ghaffar Davarpanah Varnosfaderani, a renowned Iranian stonemason. The project was mainly funded by a group of five hundred Iranian industrialists. According to a report by MEED, the construction cost about six million dollars.
On October 16, 1971, the inauguration of the tower took place. However, it was not until January 14, 1972, that the tower was open to the public.
Before the 1979 Revolution, the main display was occupied by a copy of the Cyrus Cylinder, the original being kept at the British Museum. Next to the Cyrus Cylinder was a gold plaque commemorating the original presentation of the museum to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi by the Mayor of Tehran. Pottery, ceramics, varnished porcelain (such as a seventh-century blue and gold dish from Gorgan), an illuminated Quran, and miniatures highlighted milestones in the country's history up to the 19th century, which were represented by two painted panels from Empress and the structure was to represent Farah Pahlavi as in is stated in some ancient texts.
In this project, the artist visualized the topics of freedom, peace, space and time in a poetical manner. Geist developed a light installation made of colored words and concepts in different languages, and abstract painterly compositions of images. The glowing words were in English, German and Persian, moving in synchronization with live music on the walls of the tower.Philipp Geist was invited by the German Embassy to propose such a project at the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the German Reunification.
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