A series of abandoned houses in Iran’s capital city overflow with vegetation in varying states of vitality and decay, making them feel untamed, out of control and perhaps impossible to save. In some rooms, saplings spring up from cracks in concrete with a certain defiance, and flowers bloom in the dim light. In others, dead garlands drip down staircases, and shrubs that should be evergreen have begun to wither and turn brown. The variation speaks to the different ways in which people might respond to their homes suddenly no longer being safe – whether they find a way to go on, or succumb.

Born in 1980, Iranian artist Gohar Dashti grew up with the terror of war as part of her everyday life, and her work carries the pervading sense of violation that comes with loss of home and sanctuary. Each of the residences depicted in her series Home once belonged to a family that had to leave Iran for political or social reasons; the once-beautiful structures are in danger of collapse.

Though it’s certainly common for nature to take over abandoned spaces on its own, these photos have been staged to capture a certain mood.

“When I talk about war in my works, it refers to war in the world, and also refers to my memories about war when I was a child,” Dashti tells AnOther Magazine. “Usually my works start as personal perceptions. My recent work is not only a personal exploration about nature, but is also about how nature can be political. What happens to the environment when human populations are displaced or destroyed by war? People are transient while nature is a constant; it will be here long after we are all gone.”

Iranian architects have developed a Concave Roof system to collect rainwater in arid climates with low precipitation, helping cool buildings in hot and dry regions of the world. The water can in turn be filtered for drinking or integrated into interior graywater systems.

These systems help reduce reliance on artificial air conditioning (or work were it is unavailable). They could ultimately help keep people in their home regions who might otherwise have to move due to climactic changes.

BMDesign Studios’s addresses rapid evaporation with the bowl-shaped roof additions, designed to channel even the smallest amounts of accumulated rain, coalescing them into drops big enough to harvest before they evaporate.

These inverted shells also provide shade while allowing air to pass between upper and lower roofs, acting as a cooling system in the process.

Reservoirs tied into the system are situated between building walls to take advantage of the thermal capacity of the water to regular interior temperatures.

The courtyard and circulation spaces are also sunken to further cool the complex. Temperatures are higher and precipitation in parts of Iran is as much as 2/3 lower compared to global averages, so every drop counts.

Maybe in the summer, you’d prefer cooler, shadier lodgings, and in the winter, you wish you could extend your living space out into the sun. The lucky people who live in the three-story Sharifi-Ha house in Tehran, by design firm nextoffice, can transform the layout of their house in various cool ways with the simple push of a button.

Three mobile wooden volumes containing different living spaces – a guest room, home office and dining room – can be aligned flush against the fixed part of the home, rotated so the glassed-in ends face a variety of angles, and extended in or out telescopically.

When the movable rooms are facing straight out, they open up terraces on each level, bringing more daylight into the rooms that are deeper within the home.

When the occupants want more privacy and a sense of coziness, the home closes up, essentially going into either extroverted or introverted mode along with the humans who live there.

The blank concrete facades of urban Tehran offer an irresistible canvas for playful large-scale murals that seem to bend reality in unexpected ways. A city of 12 million people that has been politically and economically isolated by Western powers for decades, Iran’s capital isn’t exactly known for a sense of warmth and fun. But artist Mehdi Ghandyanloo is helping to change that, with the blessing of Tehran officials.

Optical illusions make it look as if bicyclists are riding up the sides of buildings, children climbing sixth-story window frames, monstrous goldfish emerging from underwater structures in oversized aquariums. Some buildings appear to be folded like accordions, others playing host to all sorts of gravity-defying activities.

Many of the murals have a decidedly Dali-esque feel. In ‘Life Cycle,’ ladders float within ocular cut-outs connecting one level of an open elliptical space to the other, while men walk along the ceiling against a bright blue sky.

“The city is an architectural mishmash with buildings often having only one facade and the other three just left blank and grey. This doesn’t make for a beautiful city but it is a great environment for mural work. I think the municipality really felt the need to bring some cohesion or at least colour to the often confused and smog-smeared architectural face of the city.”

Detailed views of dozens of these murals can be seen on the artist’s Behance page.