© Anis Eshragi

阿尼斯·埃什拉吉

架构师提供的文本描述。这是冬天的最后几天。天气又要变得疯狂了。新年前完成所有工作的压力把每个人都逼上了街头。就好像是世界末日的小彩排。我们在这场混乱中看到了对方。当没有时间开始任何事情，一切都必须以最快的方式完成。我们从这样一个天气开始，我们不太清楚该如何穿衣服，几分钟后警报响，一些步骤后的终点线。现在是2017年3月10日10点。我们的会议在当代建筑师协会的一楼举行。

Text description provided by the architects. It is the last days of winter. The weather is going crazy again. The pressure to finish everything before new year has pushed everyone to the streets. It’s as if it were a small rehearsal for the end of the world. We see each other in this mayhem. When there’s no time to start anything and everything must finish in the fastest way possible. We start in a weather for which we’re not quite sure how to dress, minutes away for the alarm to ring, some steps behind the finish line. It is 10 o’clock, March 10th, 2017. Our meeting is on the first floor at The Contemporary Architects Association.

 © Anis Eshragi

阿尼斯·埃什拉吉

我们以自己认为的方式自我介绍，我们互相了解。我们是一个新的团队，但是这个决定和去年一样。在呼罗珊南部的埃斯法哈克用泥土建造，乘火车去，17小时车程。这次我们要建造他们想要的东西。“天文台”。在学校附近的很多地方。有二十个人围在一起的圆圈。离地面一米高。

We introduce ourselves the way we think we are.We get to know each other. We’re a new group but the decision is the same as last year’s. To build out of soil, in Esfahak, Southern Khorasan, to go by train, 17 hours away. This time we’ll build what they want us to. “an observatory”. In a lot near the school. A circle for twenty people to gather around. One meter above ground level.

 © Anis Eshragi

阿尼斯·埃什拉吉

明天下午我们将用木头做土坯模，土坯砖将是2厘米x2厘米和0，5厘米厚。现在我们真的开始了。各种半成品设计都建在桌子上。我们选择一个，并决定继续努力。有时我们工作更多，有时我们交谈。很快，我们意识到这不能通过交谈来完成。在建成之前是做不到的。在我们谈话的过程中，总有人说“让我们建设吧！”

Tomorrow afternoon we’ll build the adobe moulds out of wood.The adobe bricks will be 2 cm x 2 cm and 0,5 cm thick. Now we’ve really got started. Various halfway done designs are built on the tables. We choose one and decide to keep working on it. Sometimes we work more, other times we talk. Soon We realize this can’t be done by talking. It can’t be done until it’s built. In the middle of our talks there’s always someone saying “let’s build!”

三个集中的圆圈。中心的那个是最高的，将是人类与天空相遇的地方。还有另外两个圆圈，包括通往中心的一个人通道。我们不想看到除了天空本身以外的任何东西的地方。设计变化，而建设它。似乎每个人都想变得更小，这样他们就可以在模型真正建立之前就走进去了。我们决定这个设计的目的是集中精力。我们不会离开这个圈子的。墙壁拔地而起，一周后，这项工作就完成了。我们清理周围的环境，站在后面用迫击炮盖着手观察。天文台的梦想已经准备好了。

Three concentrated circles. The one at the center is the highest one and will be where man meets the sky. And two other circles that encompass a single person passageway that leads to the center. The place where we don’t want to see anything other than the sky itself. The design changes whilst building it. It seems as if everyone wants to become smaller so that they can walk inside the model before it’s actually built. We decided that the aim of this design is to concentrate. We won’t leave this circle. The walls go up and a week later, the job is done. We clean the surroundings and stand back with our mortar covered hands to observe. The observatory dream is ready.

 © Anis Eshragi

阿尼斯·埃什拉吉

两天后我们动身去伊斯法克。我们午夜到达。我们几乎都睡不着。我们早上再见面。最近加入我们的旧的和新的，最重要的是埃斯法哈本身。现在我们是来自蒙特雷、伦敦、德黑兰、克尔曼和马什哈德的一群人。是什么响声把我们聚到一起了？我们的土坯和泥土的工作开始了。工作场地就在一堵古老的圆木墙旁边。这是我们接下来几天要花的地方。没人等。每个人都有足够的事要做，而且还有更多的事要做。我们为地基收集石头。有些人把迫击炮和赤脚混在一起。我们大声笑。我们的禁忌很快就消失了。干净和熨烫的衣服很快就被污垢覆盖了。我们能更好地了解对方。有一天，我们在这阳光下工作，我们的脚深深地埋在这片土地和泥土里，这等于是在城市里相互了解了几个月的痛苦。当我们离开去吃午饭的时候，迫击炮已经准备好了，地基已经建好了，我们都更了解对方了。在我们住的“阿吉·佩达尔”餐厅吃过午饭后，我们休息了一会儿。我们的工作日程就像太阳的一样。我们就像太阳一样工作。我们所做的一切都是在白天。我们用灰泥和土坯来平衡表面。墙壁的建造始于最外层的一面。

Two days later we leave for Esfahak. We arrive at midnight. We barely sleep. We meet again in the morning. The old and the new that have recently joined us, and most importantly – Esfahak itself. Now we are a group from Montréal, from London, from Tehran, Kerman and Mashhad. What loud noise has brought us all together? Our work with adobe and dirt starts. The working lot is next to an old cob wall. This is where we’ll spend the next days. Nobody waits. There’s enough to do for everyone and more. We collect stones for the foundation. Some people mix the mortar with their bare feet. We laugh loudly. Our inhibitions are soon gone. Clean and ironed clothes are soon covered with dirt. We get to know each other better. One day working under this sun, with our feet deep within this soil and dirt equals to months of painful getting to know each other in the city. When we leave for lunch, the mortar is ready, the foundations built and we all know each other just so much better. After lunch at “Haji Pedar’s”, which is where we’re staying, we rest for a bit. Our working schedule is like the sun’s. We work just like the sun. Whatever we do is during the day. We balance the surface with mortar and adobe. The building of the walls starts with the outermost one.

我们没有分工的计划，但我们互相问。我们可以分辨我们的身体能做什么和不能做什么。现在每个人都有自己的位置。每一块砖一砖，一排，我们就能更好地了解自己。一种是在不同的任务之间来回往返，另一种是通过不断地处理一个单一的任务。熟能生巧不停地铲土让我们的背疼。但我们做得更好了。我们终于得到了迫击炮的最佳一致性。与此同时，每隔一段时间，“阿巴斯·阿加”就会带着一批新的土坯砖来到这里。我们排队清空砖块。Reza和Pooyan泡茶。当你这么累的时候喝一杯茶是多么好啊。一切都必须提到，记住。我们吃的青菜，午餐，午睡，茶，笑声，发现彼此和我们自己的喜悦。他们都需要同样的土坯砖块和灰泥来建造天文台。就像参与这个过程一样。一天结束后，我们在阳光下洗工具，然后把它们存放在一个小房间里，那里也有两个坟墓。

We don’t have a plan to divide work, but we ask each other. We can tell what our bodies can and cannot do. Now everyone has their own place. With each brick over the other, row over row, we get to know ourselves better. One by going back and forth between different tasks and another by constantly working on a single one. Practice makes perfect. Constant shoveling has left our backs hurting. But we get better at it. We finally get what’s the best consistency for the mortar. Meanwhile, “Abbas Agha” arrives every once in a while with a new fresh batch of adobe bricks. We line up and empty the bricks. Reza and Pooyan make tea. How good it is to drink a cup of tea when you’re so tired. Everything must be mentioned, remembered. The greens that we had, the lunches, the short afternoon naps, the tea, the laughter, the joy of discovering each other and ourselves. They all were needed just as much as the adobe bricks and mortar to build the observatory. Just as involved in the process. We wash our tools in what’s left of the sunlight at the end of the day and store them in a small room where there are also two graves.

 © Anis Eshragi

阿尼斯·埃什拉吉

我们已经开始担心我们将如何回去，尽管为时尚早。在这里，我们工作的每一刻我们都和它联系在一起。没有文书工作，没有生活的线索，没有我们所做的承诺，没有忧郁，没有任何来自外部的需要。这是一个完整的世界。我们工作，吃饭，交谈，我们都很快乐。我们晚上聚在一起，尽量保持清醒。我们的身体已经疲惫不堪，这意味着，我们的身体第一次出现在那里。我们怎么能回去？

We have already started worrying about how we’re going to go back, even though it’s still early. Here, each moment that we work we’re connected to it all. Free of paperwork, the threads of life, the promises we’ve made, the gloominess and the need of anything from outside. This is an entire world by itself. We work and we eat and we talk and we are happy. We gather at nights and try to stay awake as much as we can. Our bodies are worn out and that means that, for the first time, our bodies are there –present. How could we ever go back?

 © Anis Eshragi

阿尼斯·埃什拉吉

接下来的几天，新形成的云彩，墙不断上升，人们通过圆心墙的整体与我们交谈。到目前为止，我们的访客和我们使用的土坯砖一样多。你在建造什么？天文台。是给伊斯法克的吗？是所以它就留在这里，为了我们？是的，它就在这里，为了你。孩子们加入我们。我们的工作使他们兴奋。有时他们通过把砖头递给我们来帮助我们，有些时候他们给我们带来了“沙格尔·巴多姆”(Chaghale Badoom)。现在墙已经走得太高了，我们是第一个成为我们自己设计的牺牲品的人。我们在里面，我们和外面的世界的联系被切断了。天空是在头顶，现在我们必须在晚上工作，我们可以得到任何照明。我们可以先于任何人观察星空。

The next days, newly shaped clouds, the wall keeps going up, people talk with us through the wholes of the cob wall. We have as many visitors as the adobe bricks we have used so far. What is it that you’re building? An observatory. It is for Esfahak? Yes. So it stays here, for us? Yes, it stays here, for you. The children join us. Our work excites them. Sometimes they help us out by handing bricks to us, other times they bring “chaghale badoom” for us. Now the walls have gone so far up that we are the first to fall victims of our own design. We’re inside and our connection with the world outside is severed. The sky is overhead and now we must work at nights with whatever lighting we can get. We get to observe the starry sky before anyone else.

 © Anis Eshragi

阿尼斯·埃什拉吉

我们最后竖起了中间的墙。每个土坯砖旋转45度。它所创造的纹理就像我们每天看到的棕榈树，也许会睡在它们的阴影里。我们用我们新获得的更快的技能在埃斯法哈建造了最大的棕榈树。最后几天每个人都来帮忙。穆斯塔法，莫森，雷扎，阿德尔和其他人。这是最后一排砖，墙比我们高得多。我们已经错过了这一切。你不能从一个地方看到整个作品。它不适合我们的视力。我们爬上墙壁，甚至爬上一些废墟的屋顶，就在我们工作的地方。你总能听到有人大喊大叫：“从上面来看看它是什么样子！”一个孩子长得这么大，它的母亲再也不能照顾它了。最后一天，我们拿出所有的木桶和木板，我们过去常爬上爬下工作。通道现在是空的。每次我们经过他们，我们就相遇。我们再一次上升到中央最里面的圆圈，离地面一米高。就好像我们在城堡的顶上。我们的工作完成了。我们建了一座城堡。我们征服了它。天文台不再需要我们了。它可以独立生存。

We put up the middle wall last. With a 45 degree rotation per each adobe brick. The texture it creates looks like the palm trees we see every day and perhaps sleep in their shadows. We build the biggest palm tree in Esfahak with our newly acquired and faster skills. The last days everyone comes to help. Mustafa, Mohsen, Reza, Adel and the rest. It’s the last rows of brick and the wall has gone far higher up than our height. We are already missing this all. You can’t see the entire work from a single place. It doesn’t fit in our eyesight. We climb up walls and even go up the rooftop of some ruins next to the lot we’re working on. You can always hear someone yelling “come see how it looks from up here!” A child grown so big that its mother can’t look out for it anymore. The last day we take out all of the barrels and wooden boards we used to climb up and down and work. The passageways are now empty. Each time we are passing through them we meet each other. We go up again to the central innermost circle, one meter above ground level. It’s as if we’re on top of a castle. Our work is done. We built a castle. We conquered it. The observatory doesn’t need us anymore. It can stand on its own.

我们怎么回去？默不作声。伤害和希望。我们是发现者。

How do we go back? In silence. Hurt and hopeful. We are discoverers.

Architects Contemporary Architects Association

Location Esfahak, South Khorasan Province, Iran

Category Public Space

Architect in Charge Amirali Zinati, Behnaz Motarjem, Aidin Emdadian, Sonia Beygi, Bahar Mehdi Pour, Hamidreza Malek Khani, Ramtin Ramezani

Area 69.0 m2

Project Year 2017

Photographs Anis Eshragi