The Beaux-Arts System and the Construction of Iranian Architectural Modernism in the Twentieth Century

From the early twentieth century, the Franco–Iranian cultural relationship and the desire of Pahlavi governments to modernize the Iranian built environment led to the enrollment of a significant number of Iranians at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Upon their return home, these diplômés worked for successive governmental regimes, contributing to the expression of Iranian modernism by designing some of the country’s most nationally significant buildings. By accessing archival materials in Tehran and Paris, this article reveals the substantial role of Beaux-Arts training in the expression of Iranian twentieth-century modernism, delving into the works of three prominent Iranian graduates: Mohsen Foroughi, Houshang Seihoun, and Amirali Sardar-Afkhami. The expression of Iranian modern identity was not simply a matter of the importation of the Beaux-Arts method; it was also the outcome of a special cultural-political relationship between France and Iran that provided the ground for the transfer of such expression and techniques.