Le désir d'avant-garde
The FMSH is pleased to welcome La Commune publishing house for an evening presentation of the book Le désir d'avant-garde.
During this event, the author of the book, Sina Abédi, will present his work and discuss it with architect and writer Richard Scoffier.
After the presentation, you will have the opportunity to ask our guests any questions you may have.
Le désir d'avant-garde
In the late 1960s, buoyed by soaring oil revenues, Iran experienced spectacular prosperity and dreams of itself as a ‘regional centre for the arts and architecture’. The state invited leading Western architects, organised numerous international journals, conferences and competitions, whilst Queen Farah Diba’s patronage turned architecture into an instrument of prestige and political legitimacy. From Tehran to Isfahan, a generation of Iranian architects collaborated with masters from America and Europe, working on projects ranging from mass housing schemes to the restoration of historic sites.
From this momentum arose a paradox that this book terms ‘the desire for the avant-garde’: a fervent aspiration for progress, fuelled by unbalanced economic growth, which imported Western ideas that were already outdated without allowing a genuinely local avant-garde to emerge. Isfahan became the symbol of this, torn between the preservation of its Persian gardens and the arrival of gigantic industrial facilities.
Drawing on previously unpublished sources and a wealth of illustrations, Le désir d'avant-garde traces two decisive decades, right up to their upheaval with the 1979 revolution. Looking beyond the Iranian case alone, it offers a rare reflection on architectural modernity outside the West, caught in a constant tug-of-war between a fascination with a West synonymous with modernity and an attachment to an East steeped in tradition.
Sina Abedi holds a PhD in architecture and is a lecturer, researcher and cultural entrepreneur. Born in Isfahan, he is a graduate of ENSA Versailles and Université Paris-Est SUP; he is an associate researcher at IPRAUS at ENSA Paris-Belleville and Executive Director for France of the Franco-Chinese MAGE Chair. He has been awarded the MIT Emerging Scholars Grant. He is also involved in cultural activities and serves as a trustee of the National Foundation for Fine Arts. His talk will focus on the book’s central thesis, the previously unpublished sources drawn upon, the roles of Isfahan and Tehran, cultural exchanges between East and West, and the way in which architecture becomes an instrument of prestige, transformation and political legitimacy.
Richard Scoffier is an architect, critic, writer, lecturer and architectural theorist. His career combines architectural practice, teaching, philosophy and criticism. He holds a DEA in philosophy and has taught at several national higher schools of architecture, notably in Versailles and Paris-Val de Seine. He has published several books on architectural and urban thought, including Les villes de la puissance and Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de l'architecture contemporaine. He contributes to the journal d’Architectures and runs the Université Populaire at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal, a space for knowledge-sharing and debate on architecture and the city. His critical writings earned him the Academy of Architecture’s Medal for Architectural Analysis in 2013. During this evening’s event, Richard Scoffier will take part as a key panellist. His presence will enable the book to be explored beyond the specific case of Iran. He will examine the notion of the avant-garde, the fascination with the West, the relationship between architecture and power, the role of heritage, and the conditions under which a situated modernity emerges.
Meeting
29 October 2026
6:30 pm
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FMSH
54 boulevard Raspail
Paris 6
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