Editors’ Choice

2020 Skyscraper Competition
Mojtaba Hatami

Iran

Pigeon Tower can be taken as an Iranian architectural wonder. This kind of architecture in the past, as agricultural infrastructure, has continued to be present in Iran. These towers were built on farms to attract pigeons. The pigeons were domesticated not for their meat (in general, birds are respected in Iranian culture), but rather for their droppings, which the locals collected and used to fertilize melon and cucumber fields. Pigeon dung was thought to be the best manure for these crops, and the tower was built for the purpose of attracting pigeons to them so they would nest in the towers and their dung could be harvested. The typical pigeon tower is cylindrical (circular ground plans) and because many animals prey on pigeons, the small size of the entrance prohibits large birds (predators) from entering inside. This is rooted in sustainable thinking in the native architecture of this land and the importance of this building in the field of agriculture and economics. Modern fertilizers and chemicals have rendered these magnificent structures obsolete leading to their abandonment in the fields, where they continue to deteriorate due to lack of maintenance. Today, in Tehran, more than 170 species of birds have been recorded in the three main ecosystems (wetlands, woodlands, and mountainous regions), which, unfortunately, are reducing with the city expansion and destroying habitats. The current extinc...