ABSTRACT

Chapter 12 , titled “Pardisan,” examines the design of Pardisan Park in Tehran, Iran (unbuilt) that Ian McHarg developed for the Iranian Department of Environment. Conceived as the coda for the text, this chapter details how McHarg materialized his concept of environmental design within a global context as a progressive emblem of post-colonial modernization. The concept of garden is critical to this discussion. Following the traditions of Middle Eastern garden design, the park was conceived as a walled enclosure containing streams, fountains, ornate pavilions, and a profusion of plants and wild animals provided a framework for this vision. Ecology, overlaid with the precepts of Darwinian evolutionary theory, natural selection, and adaption updated this organizational structure to align with 20th-century science. The adroit use of systems diagrams and matrices determined how to implement the scheme in a barren desert, and a state-of-the-art transportation infrastructure opened the design to the city, country, and world. Entertainment and shopping enticed visitors to the park and allowed Iranians to enjoy the fruits of Western industrial modernization.