Shir-Dal Retreat: A Semi-Open Living space in nature
The Shir-Dal Retreat is an architectural concept by Iranian architect Mohamad Rasoul Moosapour, envisioned for a densely forested site. Intended not as a permanent residence but as a temporary refuge, the structure serves as a place for pause, shaped as a floating, open platform for reflection within a natural landscape.
The spatial concept eliminates the boundary between interior and exterior. Moosapour’s design frames a semi-open structure whose walls, roofs, and floors each articulate distinct functions, yet exist in continuous exchange with the environment. Rather than organizing space through enclosure, the project opens itself to the elements, allowing the surroundings to co-define the experience.
The geometry is neither fixed nor ornamental. Floors extend into the landscape, a roof plane angles toward the canopy, and the minimal partitions divide the spaces without enclosing them. These elements appear as differentiated yet responsive forms, joined through a logic of interrelation rather than hierarchy.
images © Mohamad Rasoul Moosapour
floating architecture by mohamad Rasoul Moosapour
At the heart of Shir-Dal is a wooden platform that architect Mohamad Rasoul Moosapour designs to detach from the main structure and float freely on water. More than a technical gesture, this mobility introduces a ritualistic dimension to the experience. Movement becomes a medium for awareness, turning departure and return into a contemplative rhythm. The retreat thus cultivates both physical and psychological transitions, inviting users to disengage from habitual patterns and engage more fully with the present.
Moosapour approaches this floating element as an extension of the retreat’s flexible spatial logic, along with its ambition to inspire inner stillness.
the Shir-Dal Retreat is a semi-open structure by Mohamad Rasoul Moosapour
an open composition of planes
Designing the Shir-Dal Retreat, Mohamad Rasoul Moosapou develops each architectural component with a degree of autonomy. While floor slabs, roof planes, and partitions function like organs with specific roles, they together form a cohesive, animate body. This organism-like quality is central to Moosapour’s vision for the Shir-Dal Retreat.
By forgoing static composition in favor of responsive articulation, the project offers an alternative model of spatial logic centered on rhythm and attunement. In this sense, the retreat draws attention away from built form and toward lived experience.
Throughout the design, the designer investigates architecture as a threshold, rather than a definitive structure. This framing situates Shir-Dal between presence and absence, between shelter and exposure, between stillness and movement.
the breezy proposal dissolves boundaries between architecture and nature
each surface plays a distinct role while creating an interconnected composition
a wooden deck detaches and floats freely on water
the structure’s gentle movement adds ritual to arrival and departure
the retreat invites quiet reflection within a living landscape
the structure responds to its forest setting with openness
project info:
name: Shir-Dal Retreat
architect: Mohamad Rasoul Moosapour
design team: Elnaz Baniasadi , Fatemeh Kazemi, Fatemeh Ganjeyi, Hasti Monjazeb
status: concept
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