Power and national identity in the formation of islamabad and its capitol complex

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2016

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Sarshar, Saboohi

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This thesis is an attempt to understand the concept of power and national identity concerning the urban form and architecture of Pakistan’s capital city, Islamabad. Power is more than just a coercive ability. According to Michel Foucault, power mechanisms through the normative process of order, discipline and organization affect social constructs. Through this channel, power reflects in the city’s physical form. Identity is a formalization of these social constructs. In WWII’s aftermath, many capital cities emerged that sought to negate or re-enforce ties with sovereign or imperial power. Representation played an important part in conveying this relation where a nation’s capital was seen reflection of its identity. In this stead, architecture is a powerful collective rendition of a nation by expressing, defining, negating or validating its depiction in the international world. This representation cannot be perceived in isolation from the context in which it is placed. Hence, the urban layout and pattern of the city deserves comparable importance in its analysis.Pakistan is one such nation state located in South Asia that severed its ties with British sovereignty in 1947. The intention of the thesis is not to criticize but to understand how power and concerns of national identity shaped its capital city. Islamabad is one of the largest new cities in Asia designed by Constantinos A. Doxiadis, a Greek architect and urban planner, in 1959. Because of lack of trained professionals, Pakistan relied on foreign architects such as E.D. Stone, Louis I. Kahn and Arne Jacobsen among others to design its national capitol. This research focuses on planning and urban form of the city and the architecture of the capitol complex within it.

Subject Keywords

Urbanization., Urban policy., Housing policy., Housing development.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12620325/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/26068

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Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

S. Sarshar, “Power and national identity in the formation of islamabad and its capitol complex,” M.Arch. - Master of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, 2016.