Human Flower Project
Tehran Hits the Big Time
Iran’s new floral timepiece knocks Big Ben down a peg.
My tasteful new Danish wristwatch should have come with a monocle, its sleek design minimizing such features as which hand is the big hand and which direction it’s pointing.
Flower Clock, Tehran
Photo: ISNA
Not a problem if you happen to be cruising down Tehran’s Hemmat-Modarres Freeway. There, the world’s biggest clock was unveiled Tuesday. The “Flower Clock which measures 15 meters in diameter and weighs 750 kgs was installed at a cost of six hundred million rials” (about $67,000).
The diameter of the new clock is twice that of London’s Big Ben. The garden/machine was paid for by private businesses, who’ll recoup some of their money from unspecified “necessary facilities in the vicinity” over the next two years, and then turn the clock—and its plants, presumably—over to the City of Tehran.
“Speaking at the ceremony, deputy head of Tehran Municipality for urban affairs, Mohammad Mohammadizadeh, referred to `Flower Clock’ as a symbol of planning, discipline and expertise in rare design.” Modernity on parade.
But isn’t modernity over?
One has only to consider recent public works elsewhere— energy-thrifty “love us for our ductwork” buildings going up across the U.S. and Europe or the crumpled fender aesthetic of Gehry’s Bilbao Museum—to feel Tehran is out of time. (See our earlier post on this subject.)
For many, Tehran’s new “wonder of the world” may look less “disciplined” than retro. Not that anything’s wrong with that. Some of us, weary of design “expertise,” would like very much to see a giant slope of petunias and to know what time it is.
Photo: ISNA