THE ARCHAEOLOGY
OF SPATIAL INNOVATION

How can a landscape at the heart of a city become part of its everyday life?

This thesis examines Abbasabad Hills, where highways separate public destinations from surrounding neighbourhoods and from one another. Drawing on the history of Persian cities, it reinterprets the bazaar as a framework for movement, exchange and gathering.

The proposal introduces an underground pedestrian network linking public spaces, cultural destinations and transport nodes while maintaining continuity in the landscape above. Active commercial frontages support everyday activity along the routes. Sunken gardens and identifiable entrances connect the network to the surface, becoming places to pause, meet and find one’s way.

Landscape above. Urban life below.

The landscape and pedestrian network follow different rhythms. Above, the terrain retains its changing topography; below, routes are designed with gentle gradients to make walking more comfortable.

Daylight enters directly where the network approaches the surface. At greater depths, the proposal explores solar collectors and light channels. Reinterpreted windcatchers combine entrance markers with a natural ventilation strategy.

Together, these elements translate lessons from Persian urbanism into a contemporary design proposal connecting landscape, infrastructure and public life.