Baba Beski’s Tomb by ZAV Architects – A Contemplative Garden Monument in Golestān, Iran

Where Architecture, Nature, and Memory Converge in Northern Iran

A Garden Transformed into a Sanctuary

Baba Beski spent his days in a large private garden in northern Iran, welcoming friends and followers. After his death, he was buried there according to his will. His family chose not to limit the site to a private resting place but instead envisioned it as a semi-public garden of reflection, allowing the space to carry forward his legacy of openness and hospitality.

Honoring Life and Death Through Design

The tomb sits close to the spaces where Beski lived, reinforcing the connection between life, death, and continuity. The design reflects a profound philosophical idea: decay feeds new growth, and incompleteness is the natural state of existence. This duality—life and death as intertwined rather than opposed—became the conceptual foundation of the project.

Embracing the State of Incompleteness

ZAV Architects embraced the philosophy of incompleteness, creating a design that avoids finality. The garden and man-made structures coexist in a suspended state, representing the cycle of genesis and degeneration. Instead of permanence, the architecture highlights transformation, growth, and decay.

Woven Rebar as a Monumental Structure

At the heart of the tomb lies a structure of woven rebar, a material usually hidden within reinforced concrete. Here, it is exposed, raw, and intentionally unfinished. Two thin angled planes rise to support the structure, creating a delicate balance between instability and strength. Its minimal footprint underscores the sense of openness, while the material’s vulnerability invites nature to take over.

Architecture Overtaken by Nature

Over time, the rebar rusts and climbing plants weave through it, gradually transforming the tomb into part of the living garden landscape. This slow merging symbolizes the inevitable return of the built environment to nature, reinforcing the theme of impermanence and renewal.

A Garden in Transition

This tomb represents the first phase of turning Baba Beski’s private retreat into a public garden. Future phases will adapt his living spaces into communal areas, expanding the site into a public sanctuary for meditation, memory, and regeneration.

All Photographs are works of Soroush Majidi