The Tabi'at Bridge () is the largest pedestrian overpass in

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. The bridge connects two public parks — Taleghani Park and Abo-Atash Park — by spanning Modarres Expressway, one of the main highways in northern Tehran. The word ''tabiat'' which was imported from

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

to Persian, means "nature" in Persian, but it has several other meanings in Arabic. Tabiat Pedestrian Bridge / Diba Tensile Architecture
, ArchDaily, 17 November 2014. The bridge was designed by Diba Tensile Architecture ( Leila Araghian and Alireza Behzadi). It has won several awards, including the Popular Choice Prize for Highways & Bridges from the Architizer A+ Awards, a global architectural competition based in New York.2015 Architizer A+ Awards Winners: Typology Winners
. The bridge also won the 2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture/ Aga Khan 2016 Award for Tabiat Bridge/ Diba Tensile Architecture
for its exemplary approach to an infrastructure project, "a breath of fresh air" according to the award jury.

History

Tabiat Bridge was designed by Leila Araghian as part of a local competition for the design of a bridge to connect two parks in north Tehran which were separated by a highway. In designing the bridge, a process which took a total of 4 years, Araghian wanted it to "be a place for people to stay and ponder, not simply pass." To achieve this the bridge is not straight and contains benches and seating. Construction of the bridge started in 2010, using a total of 2000 tonnes of

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

and 10000 cubic metres of

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

before it was finished in October 2014. Construction of the bridge over a large highway was described as a big challenge, with platforms and temporary tunnels built to ensure that nothing fell onto the road below.

Architecture

Three tree-shaped columns support two continuous deck levels which makes the lower level covered and suitable for use in all seasons. A third level is located where the truss meets the column branches. The complex steel structure has a dynamic three-dimensional truss^{^/sup> and the surface is curved with a varying width. Structural elements of the bridge use a latent geometrical order rotated and repeated in all three dimensions.

Restaurants serve customers at either end of the bridge with seating areas and kiosks between. Some areas of the bridge are open to allow trees to grow and the bridge itself has green spaces to encourage visitors to linger. The bridge offers viewing areas for scenery without itself blocking the view of the Alborz mountains and has a small footprint that blends in with its environment.

Each of the two parks the bridge connects has multiple pathways leading visitors onto the bridge.

Gathering Place

The bridge not only connects two parks, it is a popular gathering place for the community in its seating areas and restaurants, acting as a place for people to stay not just pass. Some have described walking on the bridge as feeling like walking through a forest and a place of positive energy where they can come to reenergize when feeling low. Four million people visited the bridge the first year it was open.

See also

* Ab-o-Atash Park

References

{{coord, 35.7545, 51.4204, type:landmark_region:IR, display=title
Bridges completed in 2014
Bridges in Iran
Buildings and structures in Tehran
Tourist attractions in Tehran
Architecture in Iran
Islamic Republic of Iran era architecture
2014 establishments in Iran
Footbridges
Linear parks}