Revolution Begins at Home: New Housing Typologies and Collectivisation of Life in Post-WWII Tehran

Experiments in the collectivization of domestic spaces such as of kitchens and laundries, and, in some cases, childcare, had already been tested in parallel to social movements in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the United States until the nineteen-thirties, but they came to an end in the post-war period. However, in countries like Iran it was the second wave of Modern Movement that aided post-WWII social movements and revitalised the discourse. Being located at the fault line between the communist and capitalist worlds, Iran became a laboratory in which such ideological projects were tested. The chapter revisits how new housing typologies became spaces of resistance in Iran. It presents an overlooked period in the history of the International Left in Iran and traces the multifaceted life of a couple who were among the founders of two influential organisations: the Women’s Association and the Association of Iranian Architects. The chapter discusses how new experimentations in housing typologies enabled domestic spaces in Tehran as spaces of resistance where class, gender, social, and political conflicts are played out.