PAS is a cultural and artistic institute based in Tehran, set up as a centre for cultural and artistic activity of many kinds rather than for a single discipline.
What the institute does
Its stated aim is to broaden public awareness and to encourage cultural exchange across borders. In practice that takes the form of cultural, artistic and architectural lectures, seminars, workshops and training, together with publications, exhibitions, concerts and film-making. The common thread is that each format is treated as a way of making a subject experienced rather than merely described — which is why the architecture programmes combine theory sessions with visits.
Collaboration in Rome
The institute works with a research unit of the architecture faculty of Sapienza University of Rome. Through that collaboration it has run international activities — workshops and lectures — in Italy and in Iran, with certificates issued jointly at the end of each programme and lectures translated for Persian-speaking participants.
The Fanoos complex
One of the larger undertakings of recent years has been the Fanoos touristic complex, a project for a five-star hotel on the Caspian coast, on a site between the sea and the Sisangan forest. The project is described on its own page.