Saba Yazdjerdi Explores an Ancient Martial Art in Her Debut Furniture Collection

The Iranian architect Saba Yazdjerdi’s debut furniture collection, the Pahlevoon Series, explores Pahlevani, a martial art originally practiced by warriors in ancient Persia. “One of my cherished childhood memories in Tehran was playing with training equipment belonging to my Agha joon,” Yazdjerdi recalls of her grandfather. “I didn’t know what they were, nor did I have the strength to move them, but I loved their peculiar look.”

The collection reinterprets these shapes as Mil-Stone, a bench in bleached ash and orange onyx; Mil-gah, a floor cushion with conical fiberglass backrests; and Kabbadeh-chin, an archery-inspired welded metal and powder-coated fiberglass sculpture in which the quiver for holding arrows becomes something far gentler: a vase for flowers. Her aim is to give the values of the tradition—things like strength and selflessness—literal and figurative shelter within the contemporary home.