Pardisan

Pardisan is a total environmental park in the image
of the Persian garden, a paradise in the desert. It
is the unique conception of Iran’s Department of
Environment and is designed to bring all the
organizations traditionally concerned with nature –
zoos, botanical gardens, and museums of natural
history, etc. – under the aegis of one institution.
Situated on 300 hectares on the west side of
Tehran at the foot of the Alborz mountains,
Pardisan will present the visitors with the cosmos,
the environments of the world, and the
environments of Iran in a series of bioclimatically
faithful open- air and enclosed setting combining
animal and plant life, physical and geological settings.                                                       Master plan for Pardisan
All of Pardisan may be traversed by monorail, and
particular areas more leisurely explored on foot.

The park’s activities will focus on conservation, research,
education and recreation. It will be concerned with the subject
of adaptation in order to assure survival and success of inter-
dependent creatures – plants, animals, men and institutions.
It will endeavor to illustrate the man-environment relationship
and sequences of environmental cause and effect.

Presented from the Iranian cultural viewpoint, the aim of
Pardisan is “to induce such changes in the existing values of
society as to demonstrate that the final aim of development
must not be technological achievement solely, but the                Detail
preservation and enhancement of environmental quality for the
greatest good of all mankind by means of technological
achievement in its broadest sense.”

                                                                                          Bioclimatic Zones

                                                                                          The six geographic regions of the world – North
                                                                                          America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and
                                                                                          Oceania – are each represented in Pardisan with
                                                                                          their appropriate mix of the eight bioclimatic zones
                                                                                          – tundra, coniferous forests, deciduous forests,
                                                                                          grassland, dry scrub and woodland, desert,
                                                                                          savannah and tropical forest. Each of these zones
                                                                                          is shown in Pardisan as a combination of
                                                                                          ecosystems sharing major environmental features
                                                                                          and similarities in animal communities and
                                                                                          vegetation structure. The location of the
                                                                                          geographic regions within Pardisan corresponds
                                                                                          to their north-south, east-west relationship in the
                                                                                          world with Iran at the center. The selected world
                                                                                          bioclimatic zones presented, from Persian Gulf
                                                                                          marshes to desert plateau, from mountain valley to
                                                                                          Caspian littoral.

An oasis of peace and green at Birjand, north of the Dasht-e-Lut
Flamingos at Lake Rezaiyeh                                                                                     One of the many
                                                                                                                                    indigenous plants
                                                                                                                                    that will be on view
                                                                                                                                    in Pardisan


                                                                                                                                         Shah Abbas Carvanserai, near Siahkuh on
                                                                                                                                        the morthern edge of the Dasht-e-Kavir Desert

The Mandala Collaborative / Wallace, McHarg, Roberts and Todd,
Architects and Planners
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