ZAV Architects Transform an Olive Orchard into a Whimsical Playground in Iran

Words by Yatzer

28 June 2026

ZAV Architects Transform an Olive Orchard into a Whimsical Playground in Iran

Words by Yatzer

28 June 2026

Architecture Matters

Minudasht, Iran

Constraint is often the enemy of play, yet at Cheshm Cheran Bazi, a playground by ZAV Architects, it becomes its catalyst. Set within a 40-hectare olive orchard in Minudasht, north-eastern Iran, the project had to contend not only with a working agricultural landscape but also with an existing steel structure originally used for arboricultural training. Rather than starting from scratch, the architects embraced these conditions, using the structure’s fixed geometry as a framework for a more imaginative response. The result is a playful environment embedded in the olive grove and attuned to children’s instinct for exploration. A paradigm of adaptive reuse, the project is also a demonstration of how architecture can engage the landscape not as scenery but as a living spatial condition.

Framed through a rough concrete opening in the Cheshm Cheran building, the yellow playground unfurls among the olive canopies, a girl crossing one lobe below. A glass-railed terrace gives onto the orchard, the flat agricultural plain of Minoudasht stretching to the horizon beneath a cloud-streaked sky.

Photography by Parham Taghioff.

Framed by the gnarled trunks and silvery foliage of mature olive trees, Cheshm Cheran Bazi’s yellow perforated walkway curves through the orchard. Red metal mesh railings and industrial supports create a playful modular language, while children in the distance animate ZAV Architects’ landscape-integrated design.

Photography by Parham Taghioff.

A broad yellow platform opens between olive trees at Cheshm Cheran Bazi, its rounded edges and red mesh balustrades softening the surrounding steel framework. Children move between a trampoline and raised play decks, set against open fields, blue sky and the nearby rural complex. — Photography by Parham Taghioff.

An aerial view shows Cheshm Cheran Bazi’s yellow platforms winding through the olive orchard beside the Cheshm Cheran building and sports court. Red steel rails trace amoebic paths between the trees, transforming a productive rural setting into a vivid, landscape-integrated playground. — Photography by Parham Taghioff.

Circular yellow decks and a compact spiral stair enclosure define this elevated section of Cheshm Cheran Bazi. Red-painted mesh railings wrap around voids and platforms, while olive trees and distant farmland soften the industrial structure with a distinctly biophilic atmosphere. — Photography by Parham Taghioff.

The playground sits next to the Cheshm Cheran building, a rural complex ZAV Architects completed in 2017 for visitor accommodation and collective farm activities. Working within the existing steel framework, the team inserted a sequence of circular platforms at varying heights, some suspended, others supported, spiralling around tree trunks and gradually rising towards the main building. Interlaced with swings, slides, trampolines and rotating elements, this fluid, organic configuration forms an elevated landscape threaded through the olive grove that children experience as a route of discovery.

Sporting a vibrant yellow hue, the platforms’ curvilinear, amoebic forms are joyfully at odds with the industrial character of the orthogonal structure. Red-painted metal rails and supports further heighten this tension, amplifying the scheme’s toy-like exuberance while animating the old steel grid. This bold design language belies the project's resourceful construction. Constructed from locally available metal profiles shaped through rolling techniques, the lightweight modular platforms are combined with perforated plastic flooring developed with local craftsmen and regional manufacturers.

A curving elevated walkway arcs above a swing at Cheshm Cheran Bazi, linking red-painted steel, mesh railings and dense olive foliage into a vertical playground. Children occupy multiple levels, underscoring ZAV Architects’ transformation of an agricultural framework into a dynamic spatial terrain.

Photography by Parham Taghioff.

A yellow perforated pathway curves gently through olive trees towards the white Cheshm Cheran building, framed by red mesh railings and open rural fields. The composition highlights the playground’s role as connective tissue between architecture, orchard and agricultural landscape.

Photography by Parham Taghioff.

ZAV Architects’ playground is seen through the rectilinear steel structure that once served arboricultural training, now reimagined with circular yellow platforms and red railings. Two children explore the elevated decks, where industrial geometry gives way to a more fluid, exploratory landscape of play. — Photography by Parham Taghioff.

Children climb and pause along Cheshm Cheran Bazi’s elevated red steel walkway as it curves between mature olive trees. The industrial mesh enclosure contrasts with the organic foliage and open blue sky, turning ZAV Architects’ adaptive reuse structure into a layered, vertical playground.

Photography by Parham Taghioff.

From above, the playground’s circular platforms, spiral stairs and red mesh railings form a playful topography among dense olive canopies. The bright yellow flooring threads through the existing trees, emphasising ZAV Architects’ adaptive reuse strategy of building with, rather than over, the landscape.

Photography by Parham Taghioff.

An overhead view in flat daylight reveals the playground's full amoebic plan, a single lobed yellow form winding through the dense olive orchard with a blue trampoline marking one bulge. The oxblood framework extends beyond the decking into the trees, mapping how the structure threads each trunk. — Photography by Parham Taghioff.

Photography by Parham Taghioff.

Seen from below, the playground reveals its industrial anatomy: red steel beams, perforated yellow decking and a suspended trampoline woven around an olive tree. Filtered light passes through the modular surfaces, creating a shaded, almost infrastructural play canopy animated by children above.

Photography by Parham Taghioff.

Seen from directly below, a child mid-bounce is caught through the translucent skin of a circular trampoline, body silhouetted against blue sky. The oxblood steel frame radiates outward in perforated panels and spokes, turning a simple play element into a luminous, almost celestial aperture. — Photography by Parham Taghioff.

Beneath a canopy of perforated steel, light scatters across the oxblood framework like points of fire. An olive tree rises through the structure into open sky, while a wire basket of blue balls hangs below the decking, the whole revealing how the playground wraps living trees within its layered section.

Photography by Parham Taghioff.

Looking up through the oxblood framework, a circular trampoline set into the deck becomes a blue-rimmed oculus glimpsing sky and olive branches. Sunlight pierces the perforated canopy overhead, while suspended yellow discs and a basket of blue balls hang within the structure, an olive tree threading through it all.

Photography by Parham Taghioff.

The project fits within ZAV Architects' longstanding interrogation of what architecture is actually for: whether it can elevate wellbeing by staying relevant to its context and time, what its limits are, and how it might attain social and economic agency. Their approach to answering these questions has always rested on finding a balance between pragmatism and idealism. Cheshm Cheran Bazi exemplifies that balance, a modest agricultural framework reimagined at minimal cost into a place where play and landscape become inseparable.