New town development using modular housing / Design 1978

Qanat Kosar was planned as a new community for 5,000 emerging middle class families. As a member of the design team for J.G. White Engineering, later HAUS International, James McCullar was responsible for developing the modular housing design.

The urban design is organized in a hierarchy of residential spaces around a town center, and incorporates the Iranian traditions of passive solar orientation, roof terraces and gardens.  The modular housing consists of a flexible modular "kit of parts' that allows standard units to stacked both vertically and horizontally to accommodate the program and hilly site conditions.  The project was not realized due to political changes in Iran. The design team received a 1978 Progressive Architecture Design Citation for Urban Design and Planning.  the jury wrote  

"It is tremendously sensitive and well thought out....it is absolutely traditional.  It could be part of Runcorn or any of those towns that have been really tested, that really work on a social level"