key words: Cycle, Death, Garden, Incompleteness, Life, Monument, Reflection, Rebar, Structure
the burial - Photography: © Soroush Majidi, Faezeh Kaboli, Aran Mohiedin, Nazanin Zakeri, Fateme Rezaei
The Baba Beski Memorial Garden in northern Iran reinterprets a private garden into a semi-public site of rest and reflection, rooted in the spiritual presence of its former inhabitant. Following Beski’s death, his family envisioned a transformation that extended his tomb beyond a singular physical point to embrace the entire garden as a living monument. Central to the design is the philosophical notion of incompleteness as the dominant condition of existence - between life and death, growth and decay. This duality shapes the design narrative, positioning the garden as a liminal space where cycles of genesis and degeneration unfold.
The memorial’s physical centrepiece is a woven rebar structure, deliberately unfinished in material expression. Typically concealed within reinforced concrete, rebar here is exposed, embodying fragility, instability, and openness to transformation. Structurally, two angled rebar planes counterbalance each other, while visually they evoke a precarious, unsettled form. Over time, rust and climbing vegetation will further integrate the structure into the garden, symbolising the blending of human memory with natural processes.
By rejecting permanence, the design emphasises transience and continuity, aligning with both ecological processes and metaphysical reflection. As the first phase of a larger project, the garden repositions personal memory within a shared cultural landscape, reinforcing the coexistence of life, death, and renewal.
the burial - Photography: © Soroush Majidi, Faezeh Kaboli, Aran Mohiedin, Nazanin Zakeri, Fateme Rezaei
the burial - Photography: © Soroush Majidi, Faezeh Kaboli, Aran Mohiedin, Nazanin Zakeri, Fateme Rezaei
the burial - Photography: © Soroush Majidi, Faezeh Kaboli, Aran Mohiedin, Nazanin Zakeri, Fateme Rezaei
the burial - Photography: © Soroush Majidi, Faezeh Kaboli, Aran Mohiedin, Nazanin Zakeri, Fateme Rezaei
the burial - Photography: © Soroush Majidi, Faezeh Kaboli, Aran Mohiedin, Nazanin Zakeri, Fateme Rezaei
the burial - Photography: © Soroush Majidi, Faezeh Kaboli, Aran Mohiedin, Nazanin Zakeri, Fateme Rezaei
the burial - Photography: © Soroush Majidi, Faezeh Kaboli, Aran Mohiedin, Nazanin Zakeri, Fateme Rezaei
the burial - Photography: © Soroush Majidi, Faezeh Kaboli, Aran Mohiedin, Nazanin Zakeri, Fateme Rezaei
the burial - Photography: © Soroush Majidi, Faezeh Kaboli, Aran Mohiedin, Nazanin Zakeri, Fateme Rezaei
the burial - Photography: © Soroush Majidi, Faezeh Kaboli, Aran Mohiedin, Nazanin Zakeri, Fateme Rezaei
the burial - Photography: © Soroush Majidi, Faezeh Kaboli, Aran Mohiedin, Nazanin Zakeri, Fateme Rezaei
SITE PLAN © ZAV Architects
PLAN © ZAV Architects
AXONOMETRIC © ZAV Architects
AXONOMETRIC © ZAV Architects
AXONOMETRIC © ZAV Architects
ELEVATION © ZAV Architects
CONCEPT DIAGRAM © ZAV Architects
CONCEPT DIAGRAM © ZAV Architects
