ZAV Architects

Baba Beski’s Tomb

Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Fateme Rezaei
Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Soroush Majidi

Baba Beski’s Tomb

Zav Architects

ARCHITECTS
Zav Architects

AREA
265  m²

CATEGORY
Installations & Structures, Burial

PHOTOGRAPHS
Soroush Majidi, Faezeh Kaboli, Aran Mohiedin, Nazanin Zakeri, Fateme Rezaei

YEAR
2020

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Mohammadreza Ghodousi, Fateme Rezaei, Golnaz Bahrami, Fereshteh Assadzadeh

GRAPHIC & ILLUSTRATION
Fereshteh Assadzade

SUPERVISION
Fateme Rezaei, Sheila Ehsaei

CLIENT
Khalil Farshbaf- Beski Family

DESIGN TEAM
Shila Ehsaie, Sara Jafari, Mohsen Safshekan

STURCTURE ENGINEER
Behrang Baniadam

LOCATION
Golestān, Iran

CONSTRUCTION
Khalil Farshbaf

COLLABORATOR
Sabzgaman Beski

He spent his days in a large natural private garden in the North of Iran, where he hosted his many visitors and friends.

Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Soroush Majidi
Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Soroush Majidi

After his death, his body was buried there according to his will. Beski’s immediate family did not settle on merely executing his will, and the idea was put forward to make the garden a semi-public place of rest and reflection for his many followers.

In this way, his tomb had to be capable to extend from a limited physical point to an idea filling an entire garden.

Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Faezeh Kaboli
Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Aran Mohiedin

Beski’s body is buried next to the spaces of his everyday living. He is thought to be perished but he is also growing into the living texture of vegetation that make the garden be.

Whatever is born is subject to decay, and whatever decays is the basis for a new reproduction.

There is practically no absolute moment of completeness or nothingness, and the intermediate state of incompleteness is the dominant state in the cycle of life.

Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Soroush Majidi
Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Soroush Majidi
Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Fateme Rezaei

This vicinity of life and death, this entanglement of two seemingly but not necessarily opposite concepts, is what interested the designers.

In the design process, the state of incompleteness is embraced as the ultimate state of being. To make it visible, man-made structures and the natural texture of the garden are suspended in an intermingling limbo of incompleteness, between death and life, therefore insisting on the perpetual cycle of genesis and degeneration.

Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Soroush Majidi
Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Soroush Majidi

The monument of Beski consists of a structure made of woven rebar, conventionally used as the tensile element of reinforced concrete and normally considered unfinished, awaiting its completion.

The structure seems unstable at first glance, especially because its two thin standing planes of rebar have an angled position.

Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Soroush Majidi
Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Soroush Majidi

There is a structural reason behind this Structure Wise: the two planes compensate their lateral forces horizontally while supporting the top covering vertically.

As a result, the footprint of the structure has been minimized to two thin baselines, and its appearance displays instability, incompleteness, and spacelessness.

Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Fateme Rezaei
Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Nazanin Zakeri
Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Soroush Majidi

Later on, the structure rusts over time and is covered in and taken over by climbing plants.

This was the first phase of Baba Beski’s garden turning into a public garden, next phase of the project includes rebirthing his living spaces to the public sphere has designed under the same umbrella concept and will execute next year.

Baba Beski’s Tomb
© Soroush Majidi


Baba Beski’s Tomb
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Baba Beski’s Tomb
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Baba Beski’s Tomb
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Baba Beski’s Tomb
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Baba Beski’s Tomb
Plan - Site
Baba Beski’s Tomb
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Baba Beski’s Tomb
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Baba Beski’s Tomb
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Baba Beski’s Tomb
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Baba Beski’s Tomb
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Baba Beski’s Tomb
Diagram
Baba Beski’s Tomb
Plan - Site

ZAV Architects
T +98 21 88346886
ZAV Architects
NO>156, Tehran Province, Tehran, Somayyeh St, Iran