 Aloha, friends. First of all, I have to say I'm very honored to address all of you, and especially honored that Mr. Sample is between us here, the revered member of the Universal House of Justice. And I want to say, first of all, before getting into my points, thank Mr. Banani, and inform you that he himself had a major role in this project, and because he acted as the electrical consultant. I see a lot of his colleagues and my colleagues in the audience, and perhaps this is the place for me to thank him for what he did for his own faith, I should say, but helping me too. Mr. Sample being here recalls a lot of memories. This is just about 30 years that I was first called to act as the architect responsible for the seat of Universal House of Justice. And one of the faces that I first met, because Mr. Sample was on the building committee from the very first day I arrived, it was Mr. Sample and his kind face. And we've been dealing about the affairs of the Building and Work Center all through these 30 years. To me, it's a very interesting kind of occasion that he is here, and all these memories of these 30 years comes up. The memory about the fact that when I arrived, the staff of the World Center was very, very limited. I don't remember, was it something about 20 or 30 or a little bit more? And now it is something, forgive me if I'm not very exact about the numbers, but 600 or 800 not serving in the World Center. And the situation was as such that when the first time I came down with the model of the seat of Universal House of Justice, you just imagine who received me in the airport was one of the members of the House of Justice. I think it was Mr. Gibson. And he came down to pick me up from the airport, helped to put these heavy models in the back of his car, and we drove down. That was the situation of those days. And when I was asked to address you here, I was wondering what I should say, because the memories are a lot. And I was wondering that some people perhaps have not seen anything about these buildings. Some of you may have seen the buildings and have seen all these pictures now on internet. There's a lot of it that most of you have seen. I wondered what I could share. I think what I would do, I would brief you about some of my memories and the process of this design of the complex and how it came about. And then share some of these slides with you and give you some of the feelings I had when I was assigned to start work on these projects. At that time, I thought I am not very young. Those days I was just about 30, and now I think I was very young. And I had done a few projects in Iran. And the house with their great kindness and compassion, they called me to talk to me about the project. And in that committee, the building, I found out afterwards that was the building committee. They asked me if I have time to do the seat. And this is the way they act. And I have said before that, first of all, I don't know many architects that would reject any work, but here it was something that was very, what I was somehow brought up with this vision and a kind of aspiration about the faith and what is going to do for the world and the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh and the unity of mankind and his teachings like a son that will give light to the future civilization. All these were the way we were brought up with as a fourth generation Bahá'u'lláh. And to me, when I was asked to be the architect of the seat, it was something I really didn't see myself worthy of doing it. But on the other hand, it was something that, to me, was the portal to that divine civilization, this complex. It was the most important thing I could do in my life. And 30 years ago, when I thought about the year 2000 and the fact that these buildings have to be completed by that time, I wondered if I would be alive to see that day. And here I'm standing here talking to you when the buildings are completed. As a Bahá'u'lláh, I think you are brought up and you have some ideas. There are lots of texts and verses that you can refer. To me, perhaps I can present one sentence from the words of Bahá'u'lláh that it happens to be in pure Persian. He revealed this tablet, I think, deliberately without using much Arabic words in it. So it is a very beautiful piece of literature. And I think I have to read to you. To me, this somehow encapsulates his teachings. And this sentence, I will read it in Persian first, or maybe in English first, so that you know how does it sound in Persian, and then in Persian. He says, I am the son of wisdom and the ocean of knowledge. I cheer the faint and revive the dead. I am the guiding light that illuminates the way. I am the royal falcon and the arm of the Almighty. I unfold the drooping wings of every broken bird and start it on its flight. Then it, he says, the incomparable friend says, the portals to freedom are wide open. Taste the knee, dare unto. The fountain of wisdom is flowing abundantly. Drink your fill, dare from. And then comes to this great sentence that we used to learn in Bahá'í classes when we were children, say, O beloved ones, the tabernacle of unity has been raised, regarding not one another as strangers. You are the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch. To me, this tablet and what I read to you encapsulates his teachings. He says, I am the fruit of one tree and the leaves of one branch. I am the fruit of one tree and the ocean of knowledge. I am the guiding light that illuminates the way. I am the light that illuminates the way. I am the ruler of the world that will tell me the truth and I will tell you the truth. The friend of one tree means, the way of freedom has been opened, opened, and the eye of the tree has been opened, from that to that. Say, O friend, the tabernacle of unity has been raised, do not look at the eye of strangers as strangers. You are the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch. Now starting from this point of view, I regard this project, as Mr. Banani said, as a different task. It was not an ordinary architectural project that I would do. It was something that all my beliefs and the depth of my heart and love was connected with it. And we thought that these buildings are going to be the source of this freedom and the source of promoting what Bahá'u'lláh has said in these words. Now through our work, me and my team, my Bahá'u'lláh colleagues, we have always had this idea in front of us. This was what the buildings were going to do. And this was always the point of inspiration for all of us. Now starting from there, I have to say to bring to you that physically, when I arrived to Haifa, the House of Justice, they gave me a very brief program that in fact it was, I think, another revealed architect, had somehow consulted with the House before. And they had some ideas about what is needed. And those days, this program was very, very brief. I remember, and I hope I'm right with my memory, that it was just a meeting room and about nine rooms for the members of the House and some space for a reception. And what I remember, that was just this, that that architect had somehow sketched some programming bubble diagrams for it. And he had some things like secretariat beside the building. This is Mr. McLaughlin, Robert McLaughlin, who was working in Haifa as a volunteer for a while, helping the House with the issues of city planning of Haifa and other things, connected with the by-properties. He in the meantime had discussed matters with the House. So I arrived, but the House did not tell me anything. They just said, this is something that you may want to consider. And they gave me the texts regarding the importance of this building and what Bahá'u'lláh and Abdu'l-Baha and the Guardian had envisaged about the complex. And of course the Guardian was there. As you know, the Guardian had done a beautiful garden at the bank of Mount Carmel and he had built the first building on the garden, which you may want to know that this is the garden that we call the Ark Garden. And the first building was the Arkard's building. Now this building to me is a very beautiful building. To me it's the jewel. But I want to, you know, I've started with the words of Bahá'u'lláh. He refers to freedom of thought in this writing. I want to share some of my personal thoughts with you about this. When the House gave me this program and I started to design, think of some concepts, I think I had some barriers in my mind. Sometimes the freedom is not, because the House gave me total freedom. They didn't say if I should do classic architecture or should do a contemporary building. They didn't say anything. They just say what you think is right. And of course the Guardian had mentioned in the writings that it should be in harmonizing style all the buildings after the Arkard's building. But to me I could do a contemporary building harmonizing with the Arkard's building. It is quite possible. And in fact because of my education, architectural education in the school, to me doing a classic building at the 20th century didn't seem right. I remember when I was a student the Arkard's building was finished. And some of my Bahá'u'lláh colleagues in the school used to tell me, why did they do it in classic architecture? Why didn't they give it to Corbusier to design and Frank Lloyd Wright to do it? So this was when I was being trained as an architect. And we thought we should not do that. So this barrier was in my mind. The first sketches which came to my mind was nothing like having a classic touch. Although I had done buildings before in my own country and in my buildings because of my belief that architecture and culture is like a tree that has its roots to the past. And it gives new fruits through new crafts, new crafts you do to the tree. You get a new flower out of it. But the root is always there. This was my belief and Iran as Mr. Banani said has a very rich architectural background. So when I was doing my buildings there, I could not ignore that wealth of heritage. And I had designed a few buildings referring to the essence of what I could take from the historic background of my own country. Now here, for example, this building has a lot of references to the classic architecture of Iran. And this building, excuse me, and the same, even the pattern on the plaza is something from the classic domes of the mosques in Iran. Or this building, which is a heritage center, again, uses the historic forms and geometry. And this embassy in Beijing also, with its big high avan or the covered portion front and the geometry it has, it takes a lot from that heritage. Now I had arrived to the house for designing of the house. And I am on Mediterranean. I know that classic architecture was born on the shores of Mediterranean in Greece. And I know that this wealth of architecture has been beautiful eternally from the past. And this beauty is still there. But because of my barrier that has been created at the time when I was a student and because of what I heard, that you have to do a contemporary design and everything. Now I am caught for about nine months into what I should do and those days Mr. Sapa, who afterwards took the great task of managing the construction of the two last arc buildings with the great care and he is in the audience now and this is a chance for me to thank him for what he did. Mr. Sapa was helping me in those days. And so we were caught into this kind of just because I had an internal barrier. I want to say freedom is not always something that comes out from, to limiting. It is not from outside. Here the house of justice as a owner or a client has given me total freedom. It is myself who is stopping the flow. And I think it was important that one should clean himself totally from every free conception, prejudice, everything. It's just like the life I think as a Bahai. You have to have a very, very clean heart as Lasse was saying last night. You have to have a very transparent spirit, no barriers on the way so that the lights will shine. And I think this will apply in the life of the Bahai community too. We, this freedom is there and the Bahais think that they will bring this freedom to the whole world. They will free the souls of the whole community of people in the whole world. Then through that freedom and the non-restricted kind of souls that they will see in the world, those new inspirations will come to the world. And a new civilization of art and culture and literature will come to the world like it happened in the Christian civilization and Islamic civilization. Now this is going to be seen afterwards. I don't know what it would look like. But I think it is through this freedom that the manifestation of God brings to the hearts of people that these reflections of the light of God appears as the cultures in the world. What we have seen and we will see. That is why I think this sentence that Bahá'u'lláh said about portals of freedom and the fountain of, this was the beautiful verses that he says, that is where it comes from, I think. And this, for a little example of this humble self, this happened to me. I think there are lots of barriers that one has and we may have in between ourselves. We have to be free of those barriers. Now when I came to the house, I brought two designs, one contemporary, one classic. Because you know the inside and the way the building functions was pretty clear to me. And this function could be covered with a modern look. It could be covered with the theme of classic architecture. The function inside would not change. Because we have now the possibility of, that's what we did. That the structural engineering allows us to have very big spans and we don't have to put hundreds of columns as they used to have in classic building and clutter the spaces with columns. We can bring light easier to the buildings. We have a lot of possibilities that they didn't have in those times. So we bring those possibilities in our design. However, the clothes that this building is wearing can be a modern clothes or outfit or can be an old kind of something that gets a touch of old type of customs or clothing. And here you can decide what you want. You can quote in a prose you are writing from Shakespeare. If you quote something from him to bring your ideas clearer to the audience, you will go ahead and do that. And this is a classic text. You can quote from Virgil or anybody just to bring your concept in. Here is just like that. You have a prose you are writing and you quote from classic architecture. And I did not know that. I was not limiting anything by going to classic architecture except harmonizing with the archives. Now, afterwards when I brought the design and I remember, sorry, then I found out in the course of design about the beauties of the details of the classic architecture like what we had in the capital of the Corinthian column or the beautiful colonnades that it presents to you. It is a wealth of assets that one can get to. And the same inside, of course, the inside of the buildings are very much inspired, I think, with principles of Persian architecture. Principles of sequence of space, small space, large space, high, low, like a rhythm of music or like a poetry. These are different proportion spaces put together to make your travel or journey in the building exciting and pleasant. Now here, for example, the dome of the council chamber of the House of Justice is one of those. It's as if the core of this building, the outer part of it, is a western design, but the core of it is an eastern design. Now, I bring this because I just wanted to make sure I don't forget the fact that Hanum, Rue Hanum, which I was honored to design her resting place, was a great force in reinforcing these ideas and encouraging all the time. When I brought the first two designs, I think the House of Justice, they consulted with beloved Amatul Bahar Rue Hanum. And it was in that meeting that she was very encouraging to me and she told me that this is what the guardian wanted. Because, and it was from that point that I knew I am on the right path with the design of the seat and afterwards with the rest of the buildings. The center of study of the text and the International Teaching Center were the other next buildings that I came about to design and there were complex problems with their design because we didn't want to fill the whole beautiful garden with a lot of building. We wanted to keep the beauty of the garden. So that is why the building is somehow sunken into the mountain and it has somehow, it doesn't show itself very much. It's only the central part is what you see and the rest of it is hidden in the garden feature. But the natural light gets to this building very easily. I will show you how, but people ask me how you come to these ideas. I just wanted to share with you that I usually, when I think of some design, I come out with a lot of sketches. This is one of them, one of the first ones I have done for the center for study of the text. I will show you these sketches. I usually, for example, you can see the entrance courtyard or the portal of this building which is around entrance portal in this one. And this shows more. I have cut the columns just to see what... This is the very first sketch I did. And I usually have the habit of throwing my ideas with a lot of people. I talk with... I respect the non-architect people ideas very much. I talk to them and see what is their reaction to what I do. It is very important to me. The layman idea, something which is untrained mind. To me it's pure reaction that comes to me and it feeds back. It is very... And it's a kind of process of consultation. I talk to a lot of people. I talk to architect friends too. Many by architects, some of them are in the audience now. They have been with me or they come to the office and I talk to them about what I'm doing. And they come out with some ideas but they know just like by consultation that what they say I should not really follow. And I know what they will say as much as I want to use or inspired by I will. Otherwise they go away from the consultation table. It is very much like that. So these sketches usually is what starts the whole thing. And ends up with this portal which is again a Persian feature because of the extreme heat in Iran you have very big porches or canopies in front of the entrance of the building, sometimes very high and deep. And this gives a very intimate, inviting and compassionate look to the buildings because it's like it has opened its arm to invite you in. And all of these buildings they have this feature. They have a big, deep portal in front of them. The House of Justice has the seat of the Universal House of Justice has one of them. This one has and you see the other one. They all tell you come in, you are invited. And I think this is a very important feature. The building is not repelling. And of course having this portal gives a very interesting, I think the center of study of the text has interesting views towards the rest of the complex and towards the ocean and of course interesting details. If it was the old times, we had to have another column along these areas, around this area because it could not stand without another column. Now we are in 21st century, we can't do it without columns. That's why it's such an open space. So we are addressing the constraints of our time and the opportunities of our time. It's like a progressive revelation. You have the essence of what to create beauty, to create functionality, to create soul for the buildings. This is in your mind. Now the tools there changes in course of time. And you should be free again and open to apply these assets or new possibilities to your design and always stay at the leading edge of what you are doing without repeating what the old thing is. However, always considering that you are coming, you are a part of that tree which has its roots in the history. Now again the question of functionality, I should have light for these buildings. So you can see how these openings and courtyards sometimes adorned by water which again is a very important feature in Persian architecture happens in the center of this courtyard. And this courtyard is the source of light for this library all around it which is the reference library of the center of study of the text. And again the library just for you to see the views. This is the view of the library through that sunken courtyard. And this is a view of the roof of the center of the study of the text which shows the future gardens that is already for the gardens to be planted on them. You see how it blends into the rest of the gardens and you will see the light wells. This is one of them and another one here, another one here, another one here. You see these are taking light inside the heart of the building from the top. Now this is one of those courtyards looking from the top down. Another view looking from the top down. And you see this window here, yes this is the window here, this one. And right, this is the way the light comes to that four stories lower down. So you have natural light for all the rooms. This is another one of those meeting rooms. Now the buildings are mostly sunken or hidden under the garden. The, I don't know if you see my mouse, yes. This area is a parking which is shared between center of study of the text and another building which we call archives extension. You see this is about nine stories, this building. All parking and plant room for air conditioning, etc. And here is what a building under the same slope is the archives extension. It's a building as you see, it has about three stories. It is under the slope of the garden and it has some areas for light. As you see, this is another one, but there is a wall in front of it because I didn't want to see the windows from the garden of the Ark. I want the garden to dominate all the time. So you can see the planting that are going to grow and cover these walls very soon hopefully. And the entrance again, this is too much of a wall, it's going to be covered with green. But you can see the entrance to archives extension. Now this building is connected through this tunnel here. I don't know if the drawing is. This is the archives building here and it's connected from underground to archives extension which has a vault in it. This is the view of the inside of this and the vault. Now this is where they keep all the tablets and it is a controlled environment. That means humidity, temperature, light, everything is controlled so that the main documents, the tablets and the letters written by the main features of the Baha'i Faith are kept here as long as possible. And you can see my two colleagues, Mr. Farzad Ferdowsi and Mr. Farzad Ferdowsi here, these two young architects, they helped me, now I think it's about 30 years, they have been through all these projects with me. And these buildings have the state of the art mechanical, air conditioning, all these fiber optics, everything which you can think of. That means they are using the state of the art technology but the outside of them in the House of Justice more, it is very classic and in the other ones again, but more free. I think one of the other barriers was when I was designing the house I was very, very careful not to step out of architectural, classic architectural rules. You know every column should be a distance from another column and the proportions and everything. And I went according to Vignola, the great Roman architect who has some formulas to do that. But when it came to these other two buildings, perhaps I felt more free and I felt more confident perhaps. And this, you know I've changed all the rules. The rules are what I felt is right. I haven't somehow adhered strictly to Vignola. That means I use a column for example in front here but the distance of columns changes. This one is smaller than this one, this is smaller than this one and the center one is the biggest. So there is a kind of progression in the columns. This is something unprecedented in classic architecture. Nobody has done it but you feel free to do it because you are more free I think. This is very important. And the setting of the building in the art and the columns again. It is a beauty that I think sometimes when the architecture goes to some other areas in future years we may find something as beautiful as classic architecture. But really the details to me they are divine. And I didn't know that. I just, I gradually find out when the building was done. I said oh there is, it's as if you read a verse from Hafiz and if you read it 100 times the Ghazal or this poetry of Hafiz, the more you read the more you find meanings in it. And classic architecture is very much like that. The more you delve into it, the more there is to find out about. And I was very, I mean, blessed was that. It was a great bounty granted to me by the House of Justice to be involved in these buildings and experience this, you know. Now this building of the seat, like the other buildings, this is another belief of mine that buildings have, they should have a face, you know. That means when I say the center of the study of the text you should remember how it looked. It's like a distinct person that you have met sometimes. He has a very impressive look. You never forget it. Now all the buildings, you see the House of Justice, it is you remember that dome over it. When I say center of study of text is that round portico in front of it. You never forget that if you have seen it. And if I talk the International Teaching Center which is this building, you always remember that it has this again portico in front in this shape and it has this vault at the top. And you see how transparent it is. You can see through this vault. To me, it has a, I do not do a lot of symbolism in the buildings but this one, because this building is facing the shrine of the Bob. It just happens to be that way. And I always were aware of that as if the light of the shrine is going through this building. And to me, this was like a kind of bridge over that light. And I wanted to be, the whole building to be very transparent. And this has affected the design very much. You can see the building here is another light well or a kind of court that gives the light to lower levels. And you see the other side of this vault is the shrine. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture to see them all. But for example, at the center of the building I have a very big window again to that because of that reason. I opened the back so the light goes through. And again, classic architecture. I don't think this could be done. I don't know. There is a formula when you fall into it. It gives you a lot. It's as if you find a way of poetry and whatever you fit in, it just comes out nice. But you can make a mess too. You have to be very careful. You can easily make an ugly classic building that there are these imposing fascist buildings all over the world. They are classic too. But you know these details, I mean, it takes centuries to come out with these details. It's a pity to leave them, I think. It is amazing to me. As I said, I think it's a divine inspiration, this thing. Some people believe it was an inspiration to Solomon, but I don't know. The classic architecture, I mean. Again, the center of study of the International Teaching Center. There are features in the building. For example, we follow the American codes and safety codes. UBC is what we followed for my colleagues. And you have to have two exits. You have to have two staircases within that distance in the building, everything. We have strictly adhered to those. And so here we have to have exit staircases. In the meantime, the main staircase of the building. So this is one of them. I just wanted to show you that it sits in a kind of square-ish box, but it has a very free flow. And another view. And another view when it comes to the main entrance hall. And this feature again refers to Persian geometry. To me, it takes the light to main entrance atrium of the teaching center. And again, you can see this prism here. A glass piece here. This is another reference because this is right at the center of the building under this sunburst, I call it. Sunburst pattern. And again, it is referring to the light coming from the shrine, from the center of the window at the other side of this prism in the room. Which is the meeting room of, the main meeting room of this teaching center. This is the courtyard above, which has a skylight that you don't see. It's hidden between the gardens here in this area and takes the light to that sunburst. And again, that transparency that I talked about. This is the library, of course, a reference library for the International Teaching Center. And some marble details. We have given utmost attention to detail to these buildings because they had to stay there for 500 years as the house had part of the program. So everything had to be perfect as much as we could. You can see some of these details of wood and marble. Solid marble. Gain. Gain. The dome of the shrine through this window, what I was talking about here. And this is a view of the library inside this vault at the top of the teaching center. And another view of the librarian table and other shelves on the lower level of the library. And again, that prism that takes the light it faces that shrine again. It's as if it is capturing all the energies of the shrine of the Bob under the best of the sunburst. Which to me, again, I should bring it afterwards to you. But these are some other sunken courtyards that gives light to the basement level of this building and a meeting room in that building, in teaching center. And drawing to show nine levels, that only three of them being this blue part at the top. This is what you see outside. The rest of this building is all sunken in the ground and includes a lot of features like, this is the entry hall of that auditorium which we call the common area. There are lots of facilities under this building which is entirely a separate complex. The teaching center sits over that common area. This is the entrance kind of information desk. The cafeteria and its serving part. The foyer or the lobby of the auditorium which sits about 400 people. You see, it's completely out of those old classic modes because we are now underground and inside and we do what can be done today. Again, some views of the inner part of the foyer and the left hand side, the dining room in this area. This is dining room, this is the foyer or the lobby of the auditorium connected together. And this dining room can act as an extension to auditorium with the video screens repeating the program inside. And some other views, again. And the auditorium all under the international teaching center. As you see, this auditorium has about five different levels. And it has all the facilities of translators, projection room, video, everything. A very deep stage, a back stage for performances and any other use they want to make out with. Again, some views of inside of the meeting rooms. I think the slide is not very good but you should be able to see the shine here again. The dome of the shrine through this central window of the building. And opposite to that window is again that sunburst which to me, as I said, I do not think, I do not follow much of the symbolic figures and numbers and number nine and 19 and things in the buildings. I don't consider this necessary or if it comes to me, I will. Otherwise I don't restrict myself to bring all these kind of figure symbolism to the buildings. I think it's more important for the building to be beautiful and to work than having. Although, for example, this sunburst here has nine sides, nine rays, but it is the most I can go. I do not, I see they build by buildings and by centers and everybody wants to have a hall of nine sided hall, which is wrong. I mean, you don't do that. For a temple, yes, because it is one place of gathering has one use of worship and nothing else. And Bahá'u'lláh and Abdu'l-Bahá wanted it to look as if it invites everybody inside from nine doors and everything. Yes, the Bahá'í temples is a principle we follow and it unifies and designates what is a Bahá'í temple. But you know, we don't do Bahá'í centers all the time, nine sided, it is not a practical form. And also we don't do it classic because it's not a place for it. I did the plastic because I followed what the guardian had said. I had to harmonize with the garden and what was sitting there. And there was a type of building to stay there for 500 years. It is different to do a Bahá'í center and start to do it in classic modes and things in a middle of an American city. It is different. You have to think that the complex of arc was in a very serene environment. You cannot do the classic architecture has a lot of detail which needs meditation. It needs you to pause and look at it. It is not something that you drive with 60 kilometers an hour in a main road in London. It used to be good in Regent Street when they used to go by horses beside it. Now you drive so fast and you don't see anything. You just collect dust and it's difficult to upkeep. Now, but in the arc garden it is the most appropriate place. You have come to meditate. You have come with the idea of reverence. You have come to think of what you are when where you are going. And the gardens are so beautiful that asks for this detail. It asks for this meditating mode to look at each of these details. That is the difference. That is why this architecture cannot be applied everywhere. I mean, you don't do that. It is only for this specific location that this solution has been suggested. Now, the sunburst here happens to have nine sides and the prism that sticks out of the wall of the main meeting room of the of the center of International Teaching Center or we call it Center of International Counselors. That's another name we gave to it when we were doing our drawings. This prism holds the greatest name. And beside it, unfortunately, I couldn't capture it with my photography and in fact it's not very easy to read it but it is on the side of this piece of glass. All along this area, in Persian calligraphy, something is engraved in this prism. And this, what it has been engraved there at this edge of this side is what I read to you, which in which I want to again say this and finish it. I am the son of wisdom and the ocean of knowledge. I cheer the faint and revive the dead. I am the guiding light that illuminates the way. I am the royal falcon on the arm of the Almighty. I unfold the drooping weekends of every broken bed and start it in its flight. Thank you.