Doxiadis' Legacy of Urban Design: Adjusting and Amending The Modern

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Doxiadis' Legacy of urban design: Adjusting and amending the Modern
Article in Ekistics; reviews on the problems and science of human settlements · January 2006
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Doxiadis’ legacy of urban design: Adjusting
and amending the modern
Ahmed-Zaib K. Mahsud
The author – after his graduation with a Bachelors Degree in Architecture partly due to the lack of appropriate language, tools and vocab-
and several years of practice in private sector firms in Islamabad and ulary to comprehend and deal with the “other” context besides
also with the Pakistan Public Works Department for projects of the fed- the disdain emerging out of the resultant environments of the
eral government of Pakistan, having completed several projects to his modernist projects based largely on CIAM’s influential Athens
credit and some ongoing in Islamabad and in other parts of Pakistan –
shifted to the University of Leuven, Belgium, where he completed a
Charter of 1933.
“Master of Architecture in Human Settlements” and is presently engaged The agenda of the 1950s-1960s urbanism is to replace the
in a Ph.D research on the “Critical Relationship Between Theory and hierarchy of functions (Athens Charter) with a more complex
Practice,” focusing on the application of C.A. Doxiadis’ theory in the mak- hierarchy of “human association” (Team X: 1953-1959),2 to deal
ing of the plan of Islamabad – “the Intention,” and its realization – “the with the issues of growth (the aesthetics of the number- A. Van
Effect” on the assumption that in essence the plan of Islamabad is the Eyck),3 change and mobility, and to comprehend the city in a
central construct and focus through which the knowledge between in- particular time and place, i.e. the issues of “plurality,” “locali-
tention and effect of this important planning episode of the 1950s-1960s ty”/“context” and the loss of the “vernacular.” The modern move-
can be unlocked. The text that follows is a slightly edited version of a ment in architecture is dying out in favor of the shift in several
paper presented at the International Symposion on “Globalization and
Local Identity,” organized jointly by the World Society for Ekistics and
directions. The internal critique is developing into a re-
the University of Shiga Prefecture in Hikone, Japan, 19-24 September, configurative apparatus of modernism largely owing to the
2005. members of Team X, the projects of the inter-war period of Ernst
May, and the post-war practices of Le Corbusier, J.-L. Sert,
Candilis-Josic-Woods, Doxiadis and several others. The agen-
da is trying to combine various elements and develop a new
paradigm; the formation of a new language, grammar and vo-
cabulary of urban design as how to design or deal with the “city”
and its problems in an architectural way.
The starting point of my Ph.D research is that there are links,
gaps and blind spots within this period (1950s-1960s) which lead
to the emergence of a new agenda of urbanism: on the one side,
re-invention and application of new tools and vocabulary; on the
other side, splitting the profession of architecture or the belief
that the city is an architectonic problem, both aiming at the re-
configuration of the modern movement which in turn lead the
mainstream modern movement in several other directions.
The subject of my Ph.D research is the plan for the city of
Introduction Islamabad (1959-1960) by C.A. Doxiadis (1913-1975). I believe
The mainstream modernist agenda of universalism in architec- that figures like Doxiadis and specifically his project of Islamabad
ture, formally developed and propagated through channels like (1959-1960) can act as a window and inform us more about the
the Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM), its contemporary agenda of urbanism of that time and about the
charters and meetings since 1928 onwards, came under major transformation of modernist ideas about the “city.”
scrutiny at the turn of the 1950s by several voices within and The theme of this paper is based on an exploratory study and
outside the profession. The more popular and somewhat su- documentation of the urban design language used, its vocabu-
perficial grounds of the reaction towards the CIAM-led Modern lary, grammar and syntax in the making of the plan of Islamabad.
movement is lamented on the basis that it was universal, ster- I would like to argue that a specific kind of re-invention and re-
ile, uniform, ugly, inhuman, elitist, lacked meaning, and psycho- configuration of urban design vocabulary, grammar and tools
logical effects. The substance to this scrutiny and the develop- can be discerned in the plan which is geared towards flexibility
ing critique was partially, if not wholly, informed by the export and adaptability with the idea and aim to deal with issues of
and excursions of modern architecture and architects to the de- growth, change and mobility. I would also demonstrate Doxiadis’
veloping world – a context, being contested afresh, and begin- way of dealing with the element of “locality” and the “context,”
ning to come to terms with its post-colonial reality, often termed as a specific focus of this paper, in his rather less known, but
as “transition”1 in the popular discourse of that time. The critique, probably the largest realized architectural project – the “Punjab
though owing its origin largely to the inherent inconsistencies University” (1959), which also acted as a precursor to the urban
and internal contradictions within modernism, was reinforced design language used in the plan of Islamabad.
Ekistics, vol.72, 2005 1

Punjab University – 1959 c. the preservation of the true essence of traditional patterns;
d. the climate, site conditions, etc.
Lahore,4 the capital of the Punjab, witnessed the location, actu- The investigation and analysis concluded with the adoption
al area and boundaries of the New Campus being delineated in of a modular reference pattern on which the incorporated se-
January 1959, just 8 km south from her heart, between Model quences would eventually unfold.”6
Town and Multan road (fig. 1). Doxiadis Associates being ap- The plan (fig. 2) is termed as an “operating pattern” by
pointed as consultants in April of the same year, the year 1960 Doxiadis, the first and foremost aim of which is to establish an
saw the commencement of the materialization of the first phase environment at the new premises in which buildings appropriate
of the project, the largest single architectural undertaking in to the program, as defined by the university authorities and com-
Pakistan and probably on the Sub-Continent at that time.5 prehended/conceived by the architect in question, may occur.
Fig. 1: Location of the site for the New Campus of Punjab University of Fig. 2: Key Plan showing parts of Punjab University.
the then Lahore (1959).
The overwhelming task presented by the project and the “in- The reasons cited for the growth and proposed location of the
tentions” (four-fold) to be translated in the “plan” are described new campus for Punjab University were: academic expansion,
by Doxiadis as, “The problem presented to Doxiadis Associates increased student enrolment, the allotted area became crammed,
by this highly cultural region with a deep-rooted tradition was the capacity to satisfy the academic requirements proved in-
one of the most complex ever handled by this office. The vari- sufficient and adjacent real-estate interests (next to the old cam-
ous tools, methods, processes and executive policies were to pus) which restricted expansion.7 The creation of the new cam-
be employed to create an operating pattern the dynamics of pus for Punjab University, partly, also had to do with the idea
which would cater to and satisfy: that Punjab University was the oldest and largest university in
a. a partial and progressive materialization of buildings and post-colonial Pakistan, but at the same time it was a British-
services; colonial establishment, and through the new campus project the
b. the transformation of traditional skills and experiences (as university/academia wanted to celebrate independence in the
in construction) into contemporary techniques; form of re-incarnation of the university. There is a “duality” with-
2 Ekistics, vol.72, 2005

in this notion. On one side it is the implicit requirement of the super highway project. However, it is in the project of Punjab
university to reflect the pre-British mughal architectural legacy University in Lahore where he comes to terms with the breadth
in the form and structure of the new campus by stressing the and depth of the intellectually sophisticated living architectural
fact that it should show a break with the British and show a “new” culture of the region and tries to assimilate the stratification of
era in the life of the university connected with the ancient past this heritage, besides the notions of pre/post-colonial and the
of the locality of the context but the explicit requirement was the ambivalence between tradition and modernity, through design
“preservation of the true essence of traditional patterns.”8 The in his plan for the New town of Punjab University, which acted
dichotomy in this aspect of the notion is that both Doxiadis and as a precursor in conception but parallel in materialization to the
the university authorities agree to the fact that the architecture plan of Islamabad.
of Lahore is a “composite” and an “intellectual” one, i.e. having
absorbed the belligerent invasions and the cultural infiltrations, The content, structure and form
referring to the colonial period and the ones before the mughal
The programme developed for the new unversity town was
as well. 9 But at the same time, all the examples cited by
based on an intention of incremental approach to growth and
Doxiadis in his reports are from the mughal period with one ex-
the reduction of the university/town to three basic requirements:
ception of “Taxila” probably chosen for the suitability of its pat-
tern or being the example of ancient Greek influence during the • the academic,
gandhara period of the region, and there are none from the • the student, and
British colonial period; there is not even a single mention of the • the staff housing,
existing campus of Punjab University; its British Indo-Saracenic to be housed in a space of 800 acres with the Bari Doab Canal
expressions, which are undoubtedly one of the major landmarks passing through it (fig. 3).
of the city of Lahore. The canal is a dynamic and characteristic feature of the al-
The matter of acquiring a new campus site was initiated in most rectangular (with half champhered North Eastern edge)
1944 (three years before dependence) by the Lahore improve- space, dividing it into the South Eastern one third (approximate)
ment trust, by suggesting the proposed location, which means linear strip and the North Western two thirds (approximate) part.
that the new campus project was conceived during the colonial The two thirds part and the one third linear strip division of the
period. However, later the partition intervened and the question space is attributed to house and separate the “Staff Residential
of the new site was left dormant till January 1959, when the ac- Area,” the “Academic Complex,” and the “Student Hostels” re-
tual area and the boundaries of the new campus were delin- spectively.
eated. By then, the new regime of President Ayub Khan was al- In a broad outline, the three basic requirements of the new
ready in place and embarked upon several projects throughout campus town are translated as three zones/parts, allocated one
the country from Karachi till Islamabad, with the firm intention to third of the total space to each, and separated into different func-
consolidate the nation. tions such as:
The journey of Doxiadis through the context accompanies this • the first one of academic requirements translated as an “aca-
regime from Korangi (as the first) via Punjab University town- demic complex” and separated into seven faculties, 32 de-
ship to his most illustrious project – the creation of Islamabad as partments, with several schools/colleges, research units, teach-
the new capital of the nation – and all the way to the Trans-Asian ing areas, administrative and other support facilities.
Fig. 3: Master Plan of 1959.

Fig. 4: Punjab University – Doxiadis’ scheme for the direction of addition, expansion, pedestrian and vehicular circulation on the right and the left side
sketch represents the formation of axis.
• the second one zoned as a “Staff residential area” and sepa- canal axis, described by Doxiadis as, “Into the aforementioned
rated into five housing categories with two small facilities and plan fits the student body, whose circulation is directed along a
one big central facility (shops/market). central axis provided by the main covered walkway that forms
• the third one as the “student hostels” part flanked on two sides the spine of the complex. All movement perpendicular to this
by the standardised and repeated dormitory blocks, with sports- axis leads directly to the various departments which in turn are
and playgrounds, and the students’ union and administrative interconnected. Thus all pedestrian traffic is defined, channeled
buildings at the centre of this zone. and unified.”12 The formation of the external vehicular access
The three zones are separately placed together on the site, with structure is attributed to the exclusion of the car from the interi-
three distinct functions/programs assigned to each and articu- or of the complex and is diagrammatically illustrated and de-
lated into a framework that would allow independent projects, scribed as, “Cars are excluded from the interior of the complex,
as funds became available, to develop in an evolutionary and and access is restricted to the fringe of the built-up area. Sec-
additive way10 in the form of a clear and complete plan. ondaries from the main vehicular road, at a certain distance from
The general composition of the plan is articulated by two ma- the buildings, channel traffic to this perimeter from where the
jor orthogonal axes; the “direction of addition” and the “direction pedestrian enters the building complex on foot. Non-interference
of expansion,” established as the main structuring feature, the and segregation of the human and machine circulation and their
crossing point of which forms the centre of the new (university) respective scales are therefore maintained.”13
town (fig. 4). The first axis is in a NE-SW direction following the In the name of separating pedestrian and vehicular movement,
Bari Doab Canal and the second axis is perpendicular to it. the plan acquires an “interior” (centrality) with pedestrian move-
• The first axis, with explicit configuration, structures the whole ment and an “exterior” with machine circulation (fig. 5). The in-
“academic complex” and also establishes its direction of growth, terior is along the canal, where the human scale and the public
as well as acting as a mediating element between the aca- place are celebrated, culminating at the central square of the
demic complex and the student hostels. academic complex connected through four bridges to the square
• The second axis, the configuration of which is somewhat im- of the students’ union building. This square acquires the cen-
plicit, connects the student hostels area through the academ- trality of the whole new university town by virtue of the pro-
ic complex and the centre to the staff residential area. The grammatic variety assigned and the spatial quality attributed to
second axis accommodates the “addition” of individual de- buildings located on this square. The Central mosque (cathe-
partments, thus the expansion of the whole through the first dral), the central library (bibliothek), the monument (tower), the
axis and the “addition” of parts through the second axis are giv- square, the central administration office (city hall) and the stu-
en two separate directions. dents union building all surround this square, generating activ-
Doxiadis terms this articulation as the general planning theory ities that makes it the central public place/centre of the univer-
for Punjab University and explains this in the diagrammatically sity, in an asymmetrical composition with the canal flowing
illustrated sketch as, “a multi-phased development along the lon- through it. The character and memory associated with the canal
gitudinal axis parallel to the canal and is called “Direction of ad- by Doxiadis was that of “extraordinary beauty,” which he tries to
dition.” Each new academic department being built is added to evoke and preserve in the design by creating the central square
the existing complex, directly united to it and developed along and the pedestrian axis along with it, as he described the canal
this axis. Individual department blocks will later be expanded as, “When one reaches the point where Ferozephure (pur)
along the transverse axes of “Direction of expansion.” This ex- Avenue crosses the canal and looks southwest (the site), one
pansion, conditional and local, does not interfere with the longi- will see large groups of children bathing in the waters of the Bari
tudinal development.”11 Doab canal which recedes into perspective under the foliage of
The articulation of the structure is further attributed to the sep- trees. The scene is one of extraordinary beauty. A pathway on
aration of “human- machine” movement and scale. The linear the right hand side and an unpaved road on the other follow the
covered walkway forms the spine of the internal pedestrian water course through dense vegetation.”14 This character of the
movement within the academic complex and is parallel to the dense vegetation has been preserved by developing an espla-

Fig. 5: Punjab University – Formation of the “Interior” and “Exterior,” Inside and Outside are separately placed together.
nade on both sides of the canal, which mediates between the which were not only the requirements of the university (devel-
extra-ordinary (the academic complex) and the ordinary (the stu- opment of the whole complex over a period of time as funds be-
dent housing). came available), but were the major factors of comprehensive
The exterior of the university complex is marked by the sur- planning in the 1960s1 (Eliel Saarinen, 1965) and also issues of vi-
rounding green (fig. 6), delineated by the vehicular access all tal importance for Doxiadis as well. Doxiadis attributes the ar-
around it with one primary vehicular access (with secondaries chitectural language and pattern employed in the plan to the
forming cul-de-sacs in front of the departments) separating the “growth” and “circulation” factors such as, “The principles of
academic complex and the staff residential area. The surround- these factors, successfully translated into architectural planning
ing green is in memory of the countryside surrounding a city in language form the starting point of an adroit approach. These
the past, and the facade-less vehicular access is to maintain the aspects found their solution in the operating geometry of the pat-
appropriate scale of machine circulation. The interior of the com- tern employed.”15 The coherence of the form in the pattern em-
plex is adorned with finely grained courts and patios partly re- ployed is achieved by repeating a set of architectural vocabu-
sponding to the local climatic concerns as well as articulating lary which includes: a standard size and shape of column and
the in-between spaces of the buildings with a variety of spatial arcade (pedestrian circulation), single to triple height building
effects. volumes with a standard width, standard size and pattern of
The form of the whole complex shows two major aspects; the jalis/grills of covered walkways/bridges and staircases, standard
dynamics of “growth” and the mechanism of “circulation” (fig. 4), size and pattern of doors/windows/ventilators, the standard
Fig. 6: Punjab University – Interior of “Courts” and exterior of “Surrounding green.”

vaulted roof with round columns of the entire 1,600 m length of a quality of “duality” to the whole scheme of Doxiadis, which he
the covered walkway/pedestrian spine, and so on. The gram- tries to fix by providing horizontal and the transverse axis pass-
mar through which this vocabulary is composed follows a set of ing through the entire site and the element of the “surrounding
courtyards. The courts vary in size and shape from an exact green” and the interior “courts” as connected landscape layers
square to a variety of rectangles and L-shaped courts. The to give it a connectedness and overall homogeneity of form.
grammar of these courts in terms of space offers a range of
variety; from fully arcaded/enclosed, to half-arcaded half- The context and the eclectic local
colonnaded, three quarter-arcaded to continuously separated
The way Doxiadis conceives the “context” and the “project”
by rows of colonnades of pedestrian walkways alone and so on.
The similarity of the architectural elements, the variety provid- therein, is in the form of a scalar hierarchy, ranging from the im-
ed by the grammar of courts, the composition of one- to three- mediate surroundings of the site, to the scale of the “city” and to
storeyed heights of buildings and arcades breaks down the the “region” and, of course, the climatic conditions that are char-
monotony of the form into a fine grain and texture, and provides acteristic of the context. The city is not considered as something
an asymmetrical/non-stereotypical composition to the form of which is static but a developing one, of which the project of the
the whole academic complex. university is to become a part.
The individual buildings of the departments in the academic The description of the then “city” of Lahore is that of the “extra-
complex, according to Doxiadis, are also designed for “expan- ordinary,” somewhat implicit in his discourse and is rendered by
sion” and a maximum degree of “flexibility” in the internal reshuf- some eclectic images of the Mughal buildings (fig. 7) for their in-
fling within the skeleton of the building, and consist of a hollow tricate geometrical patterns of surface decoration, the screens/
rectangular one- to three-storey block with an open landscape jalis, the scale of the building form and enclosures, the arcaded
court in the middle and attached thereto some two- and one- courts, minarets, etc., all from the monumental Lahore and none
storey wings. The ground floor usually comprises the adminis- from the “ordinary” housing pattern or form of the city, though
tration, the multi-purpose room, research labs and special vo- more than half of the new campus project is to provide housing
cational spaces while the two upper floors contain mostly lec- for students and staff, whereas, the “growth” of the city is what he
ture rooms, the library and staff offices.16 So the ground floors puts emphasis on and makes it more explicit.
are entirely inhabited by administrative functions, which is the The spatial structure of Lahore as conceived by Doxiadis in
extension of the central administration building to the rest of the terms of importance/relevance to the project can be discerned
campus on the ground level, whereas the teaching activities of from his deconstruction of the city into twelve parts/structural el-
each department are elevated to the upper floors and hence ements. The location plan marks the arterial structure of the city
separated from the other departments. The ground floor with in black lines, the built-up area in grey shade as an amorphous
its support (administrative) function to the university, by analo- mass, the new location of the university in dark grey, and the
gy, represents the chassis of a car with the basic function of sup- twelve structural elements as, the university at its present loca-
port, and the superstructure of each department is like each seat tion, Lahore Fort, the older section of Lahore (androon-inner
in the car, separate and yet similar, the building and car both city), Shalimar Gardens, Bari Doab Canal, Ravi River, Gulberg
representing flexibility in their design as a pre-requisite for chan- – a new town which he terms as the fashionable residential area,
nelising and consuming mass-production. This becomes more the railway station, the M. Jinnah Gardens, the Governor’s res-
explicit when we move from the academic complex to the stu- idence and the Model Town which is next to the site and is
dent hostels, where the approach is changed to that based on marked in a thin outline (fig. 1). The interpretation of this pat-
the assumption of standardized hostel units and self-contained tern of Lahore is where he makes the issue of growth as more
by form. Doxiadis, justifying the approach of mass-production explicit and uses this logic for justifying the proposed location of
and repetition for hostel units, says that, “Standardization was the new campus in terms of its “accessibility” from other parts of
employed because of its evident qualities of economy and quick the city in the future and the ability of the proposed location to
construction by mass production through repetition. The great assimilate into the future Lahore as an integrated part of it.19
number of hostels to be eventually constructed in the years to At the scale of the region, Doxiadis describes the city as a site
come was an additional justification for proposing standardized where the formation of a hybrid landscape takes place. The re-
units.”17 The process of mass production is articulated into the gion is not conceived as an extra-territorial entity, but is consid-
architectural language as, “Architecturally, the hostel as a build- ered as an integrated process; a geographical, economical and
ing is laid out in a compositional pattern allowing for the stan- cultural machine geared at the production of a variety of archi-
dardization of individual common and general facilities, maxi- tectural morphology which is consumed/assimilated in the cul-
mum possibility in combinations of the basic elements so as mination of the city and by the formation of its form. The pro-
to give different arrangements, and capacities and expansion gressive transition of architectural morphology from the scale of
of construction in stages.”18 The rationalized form of mass- the region towards its hybrid/composite evolution in the form of
production of not only the dormitory blocks, but of the entire aca- the city (Lahore) is what Doxiadis believes to be the true un-
demic complex; from its pre-cast vaulted roofs to the pre-cast derstanding of the local architecture culture. The reading of the
jails/grills and most of the elements are not in contradiction with city of Lahore through its regional context enables Doxiadis to
the Fordist paradigm of that time (1960s). In fact, the plan is an attribute the hybrid character of its architecture with charged
outline for the design of an assembly line production of all the meanings of “composite,” “intellectual,” “highly refined,” “culturally
architectural elements that the whole complex is composed of radiant” and “having the capacity to absorb belligerent invasions
to evolve into an ever-growing university complex as a big ma- and cultural infiltrations” means, in other words, inherent hy-
chine to which parts are added, the machine expanded, but yet bridity with the capacity to absorb “change.”20
in an “additive” and “evolutionary” way. One of the four intentions set at the outset of the project was
The “expansion” and “addition” are the explicit qualities of form “the climate”; the ability of the plan to deal with the extremes of
in the plan, also supported by the discourse of Doxiadis, where- climatic conditions characteristic of the context. The climatic
as, the “repetition” is implicit in the academic complex but be- condition of the context (Lahore) offers a variety of four seasons
comes explicit in the standard dormitory complexes for student and is one of extremes, ranging between long dry seasons and
housing, and the staff residential area totally alienates any of Monsoon downpours, intense summer heat and cold winters,
these qualities. It is like three contradictory elements (academ- which produce a lush and indigenous verdure characteristic of
ic complex, student and staff housing) lying side by side giving the Himalayan Area. According to Doxiadis, “The contempo-

Fig. 7: Local Expression – “palaces,” Images of Mughal Architecture chosen by Doxiadis.
rary architect is faced with diverse challenges and his technical Punjab University town as the (re)invention of a pattern in which
ability must be utilized to cope with these variants of nature and contradictory elements are combined and has the ability to trans-
create within the buildings appropriate climatic and light condi- form them into a unified expression. The ability of the pattern to
tions for the metabolism and physiological build-up of man.”21 transform contradictory elements is something that is evident in
Doxiadis takes these local conditions and confronts them with the cities of the past, for example Taxila, leading Doxiadis to the
the universal/ideal for man’s well-being, showing his tendency basis of his design concept as, “The design concept for the cre-
towards inventing a (hybrid) pattern in the plan where extremes ation of this modern university complex is based on the same
of the local conditions are dealt with in a universalistic manner. functional rules that governed planning in the past.”23 The jux-
“These aspects were studied in their absolute and abstract val- taposition of palace over the city in the plan of the academic
ues and were placed against the conditions which had to be complex is iterated by Doxiadis as “functional rule(s)” of the past.
ideal for man’s well-being. Half-way between the extremes we This iteration is guiding the interlocking of various departments
had to invent the operating pattern where the contradictory ele- into a “cohesive” and “continuous” pattern, which Doxiadis legit-
ments would eventually be transformed to become part of the imizes through the analogy of the ancient plan of Taxila and the
architectural expression.”22 palaces of the Mughal period Lahore (fig. 8) as, “The mechanism
The study of the site in the context of the city (Lahore) and its of planning the various departments and integrating them into
broader region makes Doxiadis consider the new plan for the a cohesive and continuous pattern was analogous to the plan
Fig. 8: The Extrovert Synthesis: Global conception with local expression – Taxila (upper left), Lahore Fort (upper right) and the Layout plan of the
Academic Complex of Punjab University at the bottom.

of ancient Taxila, whilst the design of colleges follows a pattern ernistic, but with an analysis of the plan, we find attempts to
characteristically similar to the palaces of the Mughal period, a develop a relationship between the two (categorical and non-
sequence of closed, semi-closed and completely open spaces. categorical) by the system of axis, the central square, orienta-
A particular building sacrifices its individuality to become part of tion, the interlocking of different scale levels, rectilinear form of
a broader and ever-growing complex, in the same way that a buildings, the interweaving of landscape layers such as the va-
dwelling unit is integrated into the overall pattern of the town.”24 riety of courts, the element of the canal and the surrounding green.
The issue of the “identity” is what Doxiadis renders as “opaque” The examples of Taxila and Lahore Fort are eclectic, i.e. not
in the plan. The homogenous and interconnected fabric of the A-historical; not historicized by its context but de-contextualized,
academic complex brings the problematic of the “individual” and de-historicized and studied as a pattern, like an opening on the
the “particular.” He is aware of this problematique and defends history. The eclectic approach becomes more evident when we
his approach as, “It is true that the buildings themselves partly put together the two plans of Punjab university for analysis, one
lose their individuality when viewed as part of the total homo- of 1959 and the other as later reproduced in 196626 (fig. 9).
geneous and interconnected fabric. But the individuality be- In the first plan, the whole south-western edge of the site is
comes apparent within the confines and immediate environs of attributed to be a 600 m x 1,400 m (approx.) park and botanical
the building in the microscale and localised planning and as- gardens as a surrounding green of that side with a lake, an or-
similates itself to the pertinent functions contained therein.”25 thogonal access, the canal passing through it and a square at
The plan of the new Punjab University is in many ways a side the intersection of the two axes at the edge of the canal. In the
step, taking the university as an image and trying to make a syn- second plan, this park is changed in location and is placed be-
thesis of the Palace (Mughal) and the city (Taxila). The plan is tween the “academic complex” and the staff housing, near the
the juxtaposition of the palace over the city in the academic vehicular access to the academic complex. The surprising thing
complex with the multiplication of the specific (courts) and the is that this new park has no similarity with the earlier very mod-
student-staff area as the multiplication of the ordinary (housing). ernistic articulation of the park, but is a replica of the 17th cen-
The ground level with the central spine and the network of tury Mughal “Shalimar gardens” of Lahore. The second element
pedestrian circulation is defining the armature (the “stem”) and is that of the central mosque with the theology department at the
the buildings put on top of it as “web” (Josic-Candilis-Woods) or central square. In the first plan the form of this element is artic-
like the concept of “servant” and the “served” (Louis Kahn) or in ulated in an orthogonal manner, similar to the rest of his plan. In
a more abstract way, the “signifier” and the “signified” in terms of the second plan, a replica of the 17th century Mughal “Badshahi
language (structuralism). The plan becomes hybrid with the Mosque” with domes and a large rectilinear courtyard in the di-
ground level city and the Zeilenbau on top and the elements that rection of “Mecca” and does not follow, as visualized and illus-
are plugged in with the multiplication of courts along the hori- trated in the first plan, the two directional orthogonal axes, but
zontal and the transverse axis. If one erases the ground level is a clear unwanted/unfitting addition to the plan. A similar ele-
plan, it becomes, in formalistic terms, a modernistic Zeilenbau ment of the mosque, though at a much smaller scale is also
plan. added in the central market area of the staff housing in the sec-
The intention of Doxiadis and the opportunity provided by the ond plan. The third element, which is somewhat ambiguous, is
project and the context, which is also evident from his discourse, the demarcation of the periphery of academic complex and stu-
was to develop a relationship between categorical (housing) and dent housing with a grid of eight columns/towers, at least six-
the non-categorical (palace-temple-school; civic armature of the storeyed (the tallest structures in the campus). The function of
town). From the examples that he gives about the functional these eight towers is unclear, as they may be overhead water
rules of planning in the past by citing Taxila, it can be seen that tanks or just free-standing columns/towers for monumental or
the non-categorical is absorbed by the categorical in the case symbolic reasons, but they do mark a precise geometry, scale
of Taxila (fig. 8), as well as it could be the same case in most ex- and are repeated following a grid; a larger grid of the site. The
amples of the cities of the past from the context like androon reasons could be to develop a symbolic sense of orientation in
shehr Lahore, Jaipur, etc. Whereas, what Doxiadis has done in the 1,600 m long academic complex.
the plan of the new Punjab university town is that he has juxta- The eclectic way of choosing a pattern out of context gives
posed the categorical and the non-categorical (student/staff Doxiadis free use of the whole archives that history has pro-
housing side by side with the academic complex) – approach duced. So, in that way he is open-minded but at the same time,
showing “duality.” So at first sight, the plan looks very mod- very narrow-minded as he has a pre-conceived pattern and
Fig. 9: Master Plan of 1959 (left) and Revised plan (right).

chooses what suits the case. Doxiadis has an evolutionist view ization that rationality in itself needs the human scale and hu-
on history; looking for pure examples which are not corrupted man association, i.e. the need to adjust/amend and gear mod-
by capitalism and other contemporary forces, but at the same ernism in architecture leading towards the adaptation of human
time, are very selective (for example not choosing any British species, bringing the concepts of scale, flexibility and adapt-
period examples with which the city of Lahore is adorned). ability to the fore. What Doxiadis is doing is the multiplication
The 1950s-1960s urbanism is developing with a heavy cri- and repetition of the elements to address the issue of “growth,”
tique and as a reaction to the “alienation” developed by the “ma- dissociating them and then re-configuring which still is a func-
chine for living” metaphor and projects relying on mainstream tionalistic approach with the exception of “human scale” and “lo-
modernist dogmas based on rationality and universal order cality” that he advocates to be necessary for human association
(Athens Charter). The agenda is bringing to the fore the real- (fig. 10).
Fig. 10: Punjab University Faculty of

Education, new campus, 2004.

Islamabad: The city of the future – text, as decribed by Doxiadis, are characterised:
• firstly, by increase of income; considering the developing coun-
1959-1960 tries as non-urban cultures where people abandon their con-
In February 1959, Doxiadis was appointed as advisor to the gested-thatched roof huts in order to move to brick or concrete
Special Commission for the Location of the New Capital. The houses, or whose income allows them to abandon a mud road
New Capital of Pakistan was given the name of ISLAMABAD to move to new quarters with paved roads, water supply net-
(the City of Islam) on February 24, 1960. The preliminary Master works, transport, electricity and other facilities;
Plan of Islamabad and the planning principles that Doxiadis • secondly, the development of new family patterns; the break-
claimed would make this capital a model for “A City of the Future,” ing down of the large patriarchal family into smaller units, each
were presented to the Cabinet and approved by H.E. the Pres- demanding higher standards of living, more houses, more fa-
ident of Pakistan on 24 May, 1960.27 The most ambitious plan of cilities etc.
the 20th century, as a dynapolis conceived at the megalopoli- • thirdly, and most importantly, as described by Doxiadis, the
tan nodal point of the northern Sub-continent, for 2.5 million in- change resulted from the new social order, generated by de-
habitants marked the beginning of its materialization in the late velopment; change of old feudal pattern of land ownership to
1960s. land reform, redistribution and in the place of Lords and Serfs,
The ambition of the “City of the Future” (COF) was to (re)dis- now the rural dweller and the urban dweller, who are both ful-
cover and lay down the foundations for the creation of an ar- ly recognized citizens.33
chitecure based on “extrovert synthesis.” The aim of extrovert Analysing the impact of “overgrowth” on urban form through the
synthesis was to generate the architecture of the city in a way classical examples and highlighting the possibilities that the ma-
that is “Human” and “Universal” in its conception, yet “Local” in chine has to offer, Doxiadis argues that, “Rome and Constantinople
expression – the resurrection of architecture towards a Universal are probably the best examples of cities whose overgrowth
Human Style.28 caused the loss of their cohesion and identity as rational and
The COF was not based on a “Master stroke” – a singular ide- compact settlements. But now the machine has made cities of
al figure or a utopia, but rather with rigorous methodolgy and about ten million people quite possible and, in doing so, has
analysis of the self-created “Ekistical” canon, the idea was to un- brought about additional problems. The machine has also made
derstand the forces at work on the contemporary urban organi- possible an increase in income and productivity, which in turn
zation at large and to develop a synthesis for the proposition of had a profound effect on the people who live in the contempo-
an “entopia” – something in between “dystopia” and “utopia.” rary settlements.”34 By presenting the challenges and opportu-
The intention was to (re)invent a language and grammar for the nities offered by the forces at work on the urban form leads
composition, articulation and structuring of the city in the form
Doxiadis to make a distinction between the quantitative and qual-
of a “Dynapolis” for the production of a Universal Human Style
itative aspects of the problems as, “all these three developments
architecture. The COF, translated as an ideal scheme in the
have caused an immense increase in the demand for settle-
form of a “Dynapolis,”29 the dynamic city and the proposition of
ments, in the broadest sense of the word. The increase of pop-
the Universal Human Style, was presented at one of the most
ulation and the introduction of the machine have affected the
prestigious institutions of architecture like RIBA (London) and
demand mostly as far as size is concerned. The gradual so-
Arkitektforening (Oslo) etc. in March 1960 (just two months be-
cialization has also affected it as to size, but its primary influence
fore the submission of plans for Islamabad), as a new model
refers to quality. The qualitative effect of socialization on our
with all its spell binding effects; claiming to be less of a utopia
cities introduced a great number of “essentials” which a short
more of a synthesis, in contrast to the Athens Charter and in line
while ago were not even known”.35
with the emerging agenda of urbanism of the 1950s-1960s
In the more universal context, the structure of the cities of the
(Team X).
past were considered by Doxiadis as possessing characteris-
tics that they have inherited from older traditions and they have
“Dynapolis”: An extrovert synthesis based on kept up to now merely because of inertia, as they have never
the Universal Human Style been thought of as cities that would serve the entirely new types
There is a certain degree of ambiguity as to the universality of of human communities existing today.36 Doxiadis claims that,
the COF when seen in the context of Doxiadis’ own under- “there is no doubt that the cities of today are completely inade-
standing of universality, as he sees the urban organisation (city) quate for the machine age, wherby the machine becomes a ma-
through the dual lenses of the “developed” and the “developing jor commodity in serving human needs by providing trans-
world.”30 The problems that he considered common to all cities portation within as well as to and from the city.”37
were due to the unprecedented universal increase of popula- The most important change brought about by the era was
tion, the introduction of the machine and the gradual socializa- considered by Doxiadis as the change in the notion of how a hu-
tion of the patterns of living. These factors were attributed to the man settlement “expands.” While illustrating the phenomenon
improvement in public health that has counter-balanced all de- of the modern city spreading all around endlessly and continu-
structive forces leaving the world with a huge net gain in num- ously by analysing several cities, he concludes that in the mod-
bers and the multiple impact of the machine and modern tech- ern city the fourth dimension, the dynamic growth through time,
nology which has made large concentrations of people in the is the dominant feature and that it must take precedence in all
same area by reducing distances, by making possible multi- our planning considerations.38 The man-machine competition
storey structures and by introducing mass production for large for space was considered yet another change and described as,
numbers.31 Doxiadis magnifies these problems when discussing “The unit of magnitude, man, was replaced in our cities by the
them in the context of the developing world as: new unit, the machine, which covers a proportionately much
“All these problems ... as being common to all countries have larger space, drives at much higher speed and brings into con-
been magnified to an unbelievable degree in those countries flict its hard surface with the soft human body.”39
which are now entering an era of development. These coun- The analysis of the cities of the past, the present, and the holis-
tries are caught in a period of transition between two worlds that tic comprehension of his era, leads Doxiadis to propose the con-
differ both technically and culturally. This is particularly true cept of “Dynapolis” (fig. 11) as the ideal scheme/model for the
where changes are taking place at a very fast rate.”32 city of the future. The description of dynapolis is given by Doxiadis
The changes that acquire more gravity in the developing con- as, “The proper name for the city of the future is dynapolis, the

dynamic ‘polis’ or city, which in contrast to the static ‘polis’ or city
of the past will possess the characteristics of dynamic devel-
opment, will have development built in it. Thus this city will be
able to develop freely and naturally along a planned and pre-
determined course.”40 The number of principles, emanating
from the comprehensive planning tradition, that he sets as rules
for the elaboration of this scheme sets on the foundation of the
first principle – “unity of purpose,” the “purpose” here mean-
ing the pursuit of a democratic society. He elaborates this prin-
ciple as, “The right solution is the one which satisfies the eco-
nomic, the social, the political, the aesthetic and the cultural re-
quirements. We must understand from the beginning that we
are referring to nations, basically democratic, and cities in which
everybody is provided for, where priviliged groups do not exist
and where the inhabitants are considered to be entitled to equal
opportunities.”41 The second principle concerning the structure
of the city is “hierarchy of functions” stressing that the order
and hierarchy of functions are indispensable elements for the
survival of our cities, therefore, “we must follow a certain func-
tional hierarchy in our design that will make all functions part
of a well-coordinated system of interdependent activities.”42
The third principle – “freedom to develop dynamically” refers
to the fourth dimension of “time” considered by Doxiadis, “as an
element in design time must influence the very basis of its con-
ception, its formation, as well as its physical expression.”43 The
fourth principle is that the city of the future has to be built on var-
ious different scales and by different scales Doxiadis means the
elements that will determine the basic dimensions and propor-
tions of our city (human scale, cars, aeroplanes and even rock-
ets at a later stage).44
As to the question of size, by definition dynapolis grows con-
tinuously and therefore no limits to its size, and limiting the size
of the city in the present era is considered by Doxiadis as rather
a utopia.45 The unlimited size of the city by means of production
and consumption aspired by the present era of the “growth” is
something considered by Doxiadis as normal. He defends his
argument as, “ Again it will be asked if we should not reverse or
stop this trend (growth and size). This from the point of view of
production is unreasonable and from the point of view of con-
sumption of all kinds of goods and services is uneconomic. We
have therefore to accept this situation as a normal one.”46
The form of dynapolis is attributed to the conception of a pat-
tern which will permit the natural growth of the city, and spe-
cially, its centre, without allowing the new additions to break up
the already existing pattern. Doxiadis explains this conception
of form as, “an analysis of all possible forms that a city centre
may assume points to a solution that will permit free expansion
along a pre-determined axis. This axis will comprise the origi-
nal central core of the city and its new development on both
sides and along the central core. Such a city will follow one to-
pographical direction and its expansion will be mainly uni-di-
rectional ... (further elaboration of the scheme propounds that)
… expanding at a much greater speed in one chosen direction,
while it is also expanding at much lower speeds in the other
three. Thus, Dynapolis, besides its uni-directional movement al-
so possesses a well balanced development all around.”47 The
exact form of the dynapolis is attributed to depend on the speed
of growth of population, economy, the relationship between the
two and the control excercised on the growth of the city.48 The
city of the future is conceived by Doxiadis as a city built and de-
veloping at varying rates along a system of perpendicular axes
and defines the three basic rules about the form of dynapolis
as, “a. the rule of one main direction, b. the rule of development
on a system of vertical axes and c. the rule of a pattern of high-
ways based on different expressions of the hexagonal pattern
Fig. 11: The concept of “Dynapolis” – Form and shape. (Source: C.A. (but never of hexagons or diagnols) on the vertical system of
Doxiadis, “Islamabad,” Town Planning Review, vol. 36, April 1965, pp. axes within the city.”49
16, 17 and 21). The structure of the city is attributed by Doxiadis to the repe-

tition of the “sector” – the new modulus of the city of the future,
which has to correspond to the hierarchy of its functions and its
main axes. Doxiadis makes a distinction as to the repetition of
the sector and to its size as that, “the sector should remain the
basic unit of the structure of Dynapolis, but the way in which it
will be repeated in space should not be the same as happened
with the block within the city of the past … As the sizes of sec-
tors will vary according to physical considerations, sizes of plots,
incomes etc. it is the classification by communities which can
give a more permanent pattern on which we can base our hier-
archical structure of dynapolis.”50 The community classes range
from I, II till VIII with 75-100, 300-500 till 4.5 to 7.5 million persons
and community class IV with 6,000 to 10,000 persons is de-
scribed as “human community” where internal connecting lines
are based on human movement only whilst the machine is lim-
ited to the external – peripheral connections,51 which by analo-
gy corresponds to the size of a village.
The ideal scheme of Dynapolis, as claimed by Doxiadis, is ca-
pable of guiding the development of cities in both the developed
and the developing world, but it is equally capable of guiding
new cities to be created right from the start and existing ones
that have to be transformed into cities of the future.52 He ex-
plains this latter claim in the case of new cities, apart from the
modification of the theoretical pattern depending on the context Fig. 12: Location and distance of Islamabad from Karachi. (Source:
which is to be “useful only as a guide line, while in practice the G.V. Stephenson, “Two newly created capitals: Islamabad and Brasilia,”
city will be adjusted to the limitations of the physical landscape Town Planning Review, vol. 41, October 1970, p. 319.
… .(and in the case of existing cities) … The method to be fol-
lowed in each case should be a matter of judgement.”53 He ex- be based on the concept of “dynapolis” (fig. 11) in one of his ear-
plains this matter of judgement by illustrating seven of his pro- liest reports for Islamabad as, “If every city needs the recogni-
jects based on the Dynapolis conception namely, “the future ex- tion of this new principle, the new federal capital needs it even
tension of Washington D.C.,” “Athens Region – principles of more. This is by far the city in the country which will live on its
Dynapolis applied,” “Greater Khartoum Master Plan,” “Baghdad centre, whose purpose is really the existence of its Federal cen-
– Master Plan,” “Beirut – The proposed Administrative centre,” tre. There can be no solution found for the problems of the cap-
“The future extension of Caracas,” and “Greater Karachi Devel- ital unless this principle is recognized.”56
opment plan,”54 all presented by a unique phenomenon perti- The first important decision that Doxiadis aided the Federal
nent to them, attempting to prove the universality of the dy- Capital Commission (FCC) in making, was the choice of the site
napolis model. His belief in the functionalist rationality on which in altogether a new context, up north, almost 1,100 km from
his model of dynapolis is constructed coupled with his obses- Karachi (fig. 12), at the foot of the Margallah Hills on the Pothwar
sion with the unlimited growth of urban organization at large plateau right next to Rawalpindi – the GHQ (General Head Quar-
takes him to the extremes like, “There may be instances, how- ters) of the Pakistani Army. Doxiadis describes the merits and
ever, where the chances of affecting free development along the opportunities provided by the new location as, “Many fac-
one axis within the city may be impossible. This will probably tors influenced the decision regarding the location of Islamabad,
be the case in such larger cities as Moscow, New York, London such as transportation and communications, factors of national
and Tokyo. We cannot hope to find within these cities a com- interest, defense, economic factors, civic factors, existing facil-
pletely non-built up sector which could play the role of the ex- ities, etc. After a careful study of these, the present area was
panding central core. We may be able then to transform a cer- selected. The nearby existing city of Rawalpindi would offer
tain sector from the central core outwards … a widespread con- Islamabad considerable aid in facilities and initial housing needs.
viction that large cities have reached their maximum of devel- The Chaklala airport of Rawalpindi will help air transportations,
opment and are destined to decay. This is false. The decay of the Rawal dam will secure water supply, the existing railroad
our cities is not a matter of size but of an irrational development. and highway connections will serve communication needs. All
We must always keep in mind that we are not at the end of an these will contribute towards avoiding large investments during
evolution, but more probably just at the beginning of one.”55 the first phase of development of Islamabad.”57
This all-purpose/universal scheme of Dynapolis for the pro- The master plan of Islamabad (fig. 13) covers an area of
duction of a “universal Human Style” architecture is probably the 1,165.5 sq.km (450 sq.miles), with three main divisions, the
biggest prophecy of 20th-century urbanism for a model and most Islamabad Urban area covers 220 sq.km (85 sq.miles), the
controversial of Doxiadis’ claims which eventually (within two Islamabad Park of equal area reserved exclusively for recrea-
decades) makes the dynapolis run out of steam and collapses tion, sport and entertainment and the existing city of Rawalpindi.
under its own weight. Neverthless, a widespread application of The form proposed for Islamabad was an elongated triangle
the Dynapolis model was materialized in tens of projects by wedged between the east-west range of the Margalla Hills to its
Doxiadis around the globe in the late 1950s and 1960s but none North and the Rawal Lake to its South. The agglomeration of
as memorable and complete as Islamabad. It is the project of Rawalpindi was contained within the grid of four highways. All
Islamabad that immortalized the concept of dynapolis for gen-
citywide activities are grouped along linear spines capable of
erations to come.
gradual extension as the city centre/CBD (like the academic
complex of Punjab University – an “extrovert” synthesis). Two
The conception of the Plan separate spines (two foci dynapolis) are proposed for Islamabad
The agenda of Doxiadis for Islamabad was clear and firm from and Rawalpindi. The government centre with the administra-
the outset, and he expressed the need of the federal capital to tive and public buildings area has a fixed position, is placed at

Fig. 13: Top: Three elements (Islamabad, Rawalpindi and National Park) separately placed together and Schematic Layout of Dynapolis. Bottom:
Original Master Plan with dynamic growth of metropolitan area by Doxiadis Associates, 1960. Each of the three parts, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and the
National Park area, defined by the alignment of the main axes of the metropolitan area, is subdivided into sectors.

Fig. 14: Islamabad – Dynapolis of the “Capitol” and that of the “City”; Translation of the hybrid intentions in the “Heart of the City” (the first four sectors
and the Capitol area).
the tip of the triangle, where the main axis (spine) of the town and a representative of the ideology of Pakistan, were some of
terminates, which parallels the hill range, whereas the city can the major factors for the conception of the new federal capital
grow infinitely towards the west along its east-west axis, pro- city. The plan is that middle ground where these hybrid inten-
vided by one of the main highways. The city is divided into dis- tions and choices are translated into form and expression for re-
tinct administrative, public, diplomatic, residential, commercial, alization (fig. 14).
institutional and industrial zones. According to a rigorous func- The old and the new city - the military and the state capital,
tional hierarchy, the city is composed of square sectors with an both of these elements, Rawalpindi and Islamabad – are placed
area of approximately 324 ha, and an average gross density of side by side as a two-foci dynapolis (one for each city) and jux-
around 100 persons per ha. Each sector was supposed to be- taposed by a third element of the “park.” The “surrounding green”
come a self-contained community with its own centre, when the is in the form of the Margallah Hills, Simly, Rawal and Loi-bher
city would become large. These sectors are further divided in- dams and the Soan river surrounding the city from North-East-
to sub-sectors. The sectors designated by letters and numbers South and is open only towards the South-west for expansion.
in checkerboard fashion, with letters of the alphabet for vertical This scheme was presented as the master plan for the metropoli-
strips (North – South) like E, F, G, H, I (from A-F in total), etc. tan area for a future population of about 2,500,000 inhabitants
from the hill downwards and numerals for the horizontal strips within a period of two generations. The separation of the three
(east-west) from 1, 2, 3 to infinity. Thus the “G” strip of sectors elements (Islamabad, Rawalpindi and the park) are marked by
would be divided into G-1, G-2, G-3, G-4, G-5, G-6 and F-1, F- the two main axes: the “Murree highway” and the “Islamabad
2, etc. highway,” perpendicular to each other; secondly the expansion
The idea of urbanity that Doxiadis had in mind (Dynamic of the city is established towards a south-west direction because
growth with synthesis of human and mechanical scales), the lo- of the limitations imposed by the surrounding landscape of hills,
cal settings of the landscape (foot of Margallah Hills, the Pothwar lakes, rivers and the city of Rawalpindi; and thirdly the division
plateau and the city of Rawalpindi), the geo-political context and of the whole metropolitan area into sectors of 2 x 2 km forms a
the regime/client’s brief (modern, progressive but should also specific pattern of highways within the city. These three inter-
express the link to tradition) for representing the national culture ventions for the articulation of form precisely follow the three

rules for the form of Dynapolis established by Doxiadis as, “a. The strategies that guided these interventions (axis, formal grid
the rule of one main direction, b. the rule of development on a and the eco-grid, etc.) are, mainly, geared to organise the land-
system of vertical axes and c. the rule of a pattern of highways scape of the area. Nature (man-made, hybrid and natural) and
based on different expressions of the hexagonal pattern (but Networks (all transportation lines, highways, roads, pedestrian
never of hexagons or diagnols) on the vertical system of axes paths, etc.) are used together to form the pattern of the archi-
within the city.”58 But this form of Dynapolis was supposed to tectural space of the city.
be the capital of Pakistan, and therefore, once again Doxiadis Any element, whether natural, man-made or symbolic, that
had to play the “eclectic local.” He explains the reasons for the could set a precedent while conceiving the shapes and volumes
vertical axes and the geometrical/orthogonal pattern of the city for this architectural space comes out of two co-ordinates:
supported by the above three rules of dynapolis, the landcsape • the first co-ordinate is the “project” – a capital city and the idea
as well as the addition of cultural reasons and citing examples of a dynapolis with already its proto-form established and
of the pattern of cities that suits his case as, “Finally, for cultur- marked;
al reasons Islamabad, a symbolic city of Islam, cannot abstain • the second co-ordinate is the “site” – the landscape pattern of
from the rules of design and synthesis which are characteristic the area and the size of the city which is already being estab-
chiefly of Islamic culture. Every large and important synthesis lished.
of Islamic culture is based on pure geometry. We only have to
The architect’s intuition and his idea of urbanity have to act as
think of the great mosques with their squares, of Fatehpur Sikri
an interface to the two co-ordinates in order to determine the
and its synthesis on the basis of a vertical axis, of the Fort of
scale of the city.
Lahore, or the fort of Delhi, to be reminded that Islamic culture
In the discourse, the way this architectural space of the city is
always designed with pure geometry. Even if we go to the smal-
composed follows the principles of functional hierarchy, which
lest details in Islamic culture, we shall find that basically geom-
in a nutshell would mean; the larger the function the larger would
etry gives the pattern right down to the decoration.”59 Along with
be its volume and the space around it, the wider would be its
this, he also adds the illustration of another ancient city of the
connection with the rest of the city etc, and vice versa. This is
past, just like “Taxila” in the case of Punjab University; here it is
substantiated by Doxiadis as follows: “As a whole the city must
Mohenjo-Daro, the ancient city from 2500 BC of Pakistan’s Indus
have a hierarchy of spaces and volumes, and a hierarchy which
valley civilization for its pattern displaying the vertical axes sys-
corresponds to the hierarchy of functions.”62 His discourse de-
tem of the articulation of its form. In the case of Islamabad, just
generates the city into a scalar arrangement of 15 elements
like that of Punjab University, there is not even a single mention
of any British colonial example, though dozens of new towns starting from Anthropos, room, dwelling, dwelling group, all the
were planned during the British era in Pakistan. way to the scale of the city, metropolis, and megalopolis and so
on. He advocates that each space (its shape, size and volume)
has to be dealt with at the corresponding scale level (one
Architectural space of the city and the urban amongst 15) separately first, and then make sure that it con-
form nects the ladder, from top to bottom in a nested hierarchy of func-
The space that Doxiadis conceives through his four-dimensional tions, with its all corresponding elements. This is to say that a
city (Dynapolis) is something that he believes can be created master synthesis or “extrovert synthesis”63 as he calls it, in the
only architecturally. He believes that, “we can no longer limit end, should be the product out of the design process, in order
ourselves to single buildings, and our idea should no longer be to formulate the scale of the city. The whole discourse of
to create monuments through which we shall influence their sur- Doxiadis about the plan is structured in the same hierarchical
roundings, but rather to create a total architecture and recreate way, in a typically structuralist fashion, which makes it harder to
the whole space architecturally… Not only our houses and build- discern the partial insights that can, partly, inform us about the
ings but also our squares and roads, indeed the whole space dualities and contradictions of his plan. Therefore, the reliance
surrounding us, must be architecturally moulded … must archi- on the reading and description of his plan gains more ground
tecture fulfil itself and be a four-dimensional complex, serving than the discourse.
the actual needs of the people in a dynamic, not a static, syn- The architectural vocabulary that is being made use of in the
thesis … The results of our research and thought have con- plan of Islamabad is intriguing but at the same time raises
vinced us that not only the single house or building, not only the doubts as to its originality and authenticity. The architectural
square or road, the sector or the town, but a whole region can vocabulary closely corresponds to the various scale levels (in-
follow certain rules of synthesis, rules which we later find to be terior of the community at the human scale, periphery at the ve-
the same as those in nature.”60 This notion of architecture and hicular, centres having a synthesis of both and the CBD corre-
its capacity is something that he developed as far back as in sponding to the larger landscape), along with using nature and
1936 through the thesis of his doctoral dissertation “Architectural hierarchical order of centres (urban services centres and facil-
Space in Ancient Greece,” in which he comes to the conviction ities for the city and its residents) as structuring and continuing
that, “The ancient Greek system was total. It took all space in- elements of the design (fig. 15). The scalar arrangement of ar-
to account, and all three-dimensional masses, man-made or nat- chitectural types is achieved by adopting a principle which
ural, were incorporated as volumes in space. Voids as well as Doxiadis termed as “unity of scale.”64 This was considered ab-
masses had their form, since together they constitute the ar- solutely necessary to achieve cohesion between the various
chitectural space – the space that is created by man to en- elements of the town, according to Doxiadis, “the city is not a
hance his sense of well-being.”61 conglomeration of isolated and unrelated spaces, but one enti-
The plan of Islamabad gives us an opportunity to analyse how ty of interrelated spaces.”65
the total space of the city is moulded architecturally. As far as On the one side, the huge size of the grid – sectors, the width
his proto-form and the conceptual scheme of dynapolis is con- of Rights of Way (ROWs) and main Axis orientation (on which
cerned, it lays down the elements of the city side by side – “dis- the location of grand mosque and Capitol) – shows us the at-
sociated,” and it is this architectural configuration, following a tempt to deal with the monumentality of the capital city. On the
specific language and grammar based on “extrovert” synthesis, other side, the architectural type chosen for the central area
through which he develops the relationship between them. (which is to grow) and the residential area (which is to be stat-
The site chosen for the capital city lends itself to form the ar- ic) attempts to translate the concept of his amorphous Dynapolis
chitectural space by going through a process of interventions. with dynamic and static parts respectively.

View of the model showing central spine called “Blue Area” (with
commercial/Local government, office buildings on the right), start-
ing at the tip of the fan (the President House, Assembly Hall and
other Administrative buildings in the foreground) flanked by resi-
dential sectors (G-6 on the left and F-6 on the right). (Source:
Doxiadis Associates, Islamabad – The New Capital of Pakistan,
Bulletin no. 64, March 1964, Athens, Greece).
Fig. 15: Model of the central part of Islamabad consisting of the capital area (right center) and the first two sectors-moduli, community class V (Sector
G-6 lower and Sector F-6 upper left) and the Blue Area (CBD) along the central spine. (Source: C.A. Doxiadis, “Islamabad,” Town Planning Review,
vol. 36, April 1965).
The architectural type for the CBD or called “Blue Area” (figs. rhythm but not in symmetry, as Doxiadis tried to correspond to the
15 and 17), representing the dynamic part, is forming a contin- “reality” (the last sentence of the above quote).
uous, linear, pattern of blocks (4-8 storeys) with a variety of en- Doxiadis’ acquaintance with the group form design is also rec-
closed courts and open spaces, which is similar to the “academic ognized by the celebrated S. Giedion, “the Greek city planner
complex” of Punjab University, but with more open texture, thick- Doxiadis made an early attempt to establish the distribution of
er grain and lesser ground floor continuous connections. The building masses according to a system of polar coordinates, so
architectural space that shapes this type is not organized by that .....they are optically evenly distributed …”67
streets or paths, but by a system of open spaces, enclosed The group form of the CBD represents not only the even dis-
squares, open squares, half open and half enclosed, rectilinear tribution of space-continuity, but also represents a dynamic or-
and so on, and whereas the width of the block remains the same. der. This dynamic order can be discerned by comparing the dif-
The width of the block does not stop, running through the space, ference of the total volume of the group form of the second sec-
articulating it into a uniform rhythm of solids and voids, and in tor (which is wider) with the first sector (where it begins and is
many ways dealing with the open landscape. This uniformity of narrower). The transition of group form from one sector to the
the rhythm makes the whole of the CBD area as one single ar- next is a very critical issue, i.e. the issue of “growth,” which is al-
chitectonic object, which is continuous and growing and this is so represented by the increase in width and the volume of group
the quality that Doxiadis attributes to an ‘extrovert’ synthesis, i.e. form structure in the second sector. This increase, when worked
a form capable of expansion by repeating similar elements in a out, turned out to be a “golden section” ratio, i.e. 1.618.68 In oth-
synthesis and not “introvert” – which is complete in itself and is er words, Doxiadis deals with the issue of growth, by means of
not capable of expansion. However, it seems like a mega struc- the classical notion of the golden section ratio, while translating
ture, but it does not create monotony or symmetry; rather, it cre- it in the plan.
ates variety. The variety is within comprehension and is articu- The way Doxiadis organizes the architectural space of the
lated with precision and clarity as the concept and ability to ar- residential areas or the sector, considering the hierarchy of
ticulate space through such a structure is known to Doxiadis long functions and the sixteen parts theoretical division, is not like C.
ago. Describing the principles of group forms in ancient Greece, Alexander’s “city is like a tree,” but interconnecting with sub-
“One finds in every grouping that a building comes into view at sectors and overlapping with natural level (ravines – fig. 16).
the point where the view of another building ends. Precision and The orientation of streets and plots follows the East-West
clarity were all-important elements in the formation of space … (Margalla Axis) and North-South (Islamabad Axis) direction in
sizes of building and the spaces in which they stand appear to conformity with the direction of the main axis and the formal grid,
man’s eye in simple ratios such as 1:2, 1:2:1, 2:1:2, 1:1:1, but at the same time, keeping the orientation of some sub-
2:3:2:3. The total mass of each structure was calculated and its sectors towards the next (neighbouring) sector, creates an am-
effect determined … appear to form symmetry, which did not bivalence, which accords the existence of the informal eco-grid
exist in reality.”66 The layout of CBD architecture in the plan rep- (the grid created by the organic structure of ravines) as well as
resents the same polar co-ordinates system with simple ratios the continuous repetition of the sectors over the entire urban
of 1:2, 1:2:1, 2:1:2, and so on, which represents the uniform area. The tree becomes more interesting and more complicat-

Fig. 16: Islamabad – Articulation of the space: Overlap and non-hierarchical spatial structure.
Fig. 17: Islamabad – Urban form I: Dynamic articulation of space.
ed; something more than hierarchy – hybrid, using the diagonal This point of attached housing is also in conformity with the dis-
(ravines mostly running diagonally through the sectors) through course as he considers it as an obligation to the landscape, “If
landscape as an ordering element; a collector of extraordinary we cannot do otherwise than have detached houses, then the
things within an ordinary environment. Orientation and geom- obligation to landscape by using the system which has detached
etry, a precise system of sizes; a very regular organization but houses will work against the City’s scale. It will not merely dis-
not leading to a stereotypical rigid grid, but a variety, that is, at rupt it but will destroy it … In the past, the space was enclosed
the same time fitting within the grid and also not stereo-typical by walls. It was thus specific and positive. Now space is quite
formulation. often lost like a fluid between buildings … large plot width does
The architectural type for the sector, representing the static not allow for the formation of a continuous mass of buildings, but
part, is rows of attached housing. There are hardly any detached forces us to create detached buildings. In such cases the whole
houses. The rows of attached houses help to shape the space of continuity of built-up and open space is lost … positive space
of the street as well as of the built space. It does not let the or enclosed space, we have to keep in mind that this is valid both
space be lost, but rather framed and defined by its boundaries. for private (court-yards, gardens, etc.) and public (roads, squares

Fig. 17: Islamabad – Urban form I: Dynamic articulation of space.
Fig. 18: Islamabad – Urban form II: Static articulation of space.
etc.) spaces.”69 ty.

The only place where the shape disappears into shapeless- Doxiadis, while keeping the CBD and the sector as separate
ness is the point where it meets the natural green of the eco- entities in theory and also in the proto-form – one dynamic and
grid. This transition is usually marked by a cul-de-sac. The nat- the other static (figs. 17 and 18) – in the plan we see that he
ural green in turn helps to achieve an end to the street and does takes the typology of the CBD inside the sector as well, though
not let it cross through all the way from one end of the sector to in a much finer grain. This characteristic of the plan is not dis-
the other. This, in another way, also helps to translate the con- cernible from his discourse. The quality through which breaking
cept of “human community” with human scale, i.e. if the streets the scale of architecture of the central spine of the city and tak-
which lead to the houses are connected all the way, they would ing it inside to the sectors in a much finer grain, thereby harmo-
become thoroughfares and thus the space would not be able to nizing it with the scale of the housing. In the earlier plan of Punjab
provide intimacy for the small community. Thus the comple- University, this quality was lacking as the typology of academic
mentation of the formal grid with the informal grid proves its ca- complex was not taken inside the student hostels or staff resi-
pacity to even help secure the intimate scale for the communi- dential area, and it was only through the mediation of the cen-

tral square and the vertical axis that the three elements were come fully enclosed. Thus, many of the principles that had gov-
partially integrated. However, in the plan of Islamabad he re- erned the composition of the site during the classical and
fines this quality of integrating contradictory elements like hous- Hellenistic periods – in particular, the use of landscape as an in-
ing and the CBD, largely by reducing the scale of the CBD ty- tegral part of the plan – had now been abandoned.”73
pology when inside the sector, leaving enough natural green el- The making of the plan of Islamabad and, more specifically,
ement and providing the inter-sectoral road along with it, thus the formation of its architectural space, in many ways, seems
creating homogeneity and cohesion in the structure of the city like a resurrection project of the architectural space of ancient
in terms of gradually shifting levels of scale from the residential, Greece, as understood by Doxiadis, towards the resurrection of
to commercial, and to the monumental scale level of the city. a “universal Human Style” architecture: the space where nature
The use of the diagonal – the natural element (eco-grid) – in and the city are integrated in order to enhance the citizen’s sense
the organization of architectural space of both the residential of well-being.74 However, his discourse represents a more sim-
sector and the CBD area, plays a crucial part by providing vari- plistic and reductionist view at times, whereas his plan resolves
ety in the treatment of both landscape as well as buildings, and many inherent contradictions that seem to obscure the convic-
thus becomes an intriguing element. This element is used in tion of this resurrection.
both areas irrespective of their hierarchical requirement of be- In the project of Islamabad, Doxiadis chooses “nature” as the
ing static (sector) and dynamic (CBD). The diagonal of nature very foundation and assigns it a complementary role with the
unifies the composition of the entire architectural space of the city/urbanity, in the making of the plan, thereby causing the de-
city, though in contradiction with his hierarchy, as it not only con- generation of the city, but in turn breaks down the classical no-
nects one part of the city with the other but also opens up views tion of urbanity.
to the surrounding landscape of the city. Since the background The urban form proposed in the plan of Islamabad strikes at
hill of Margalla is a very imposing element of the landscape, it the rural-urban continuum, the ever growing sprawl and shape-
is also used as an element of composition not only at the scale lessness of the contemporary urban organization at large; the
of the city but at the scale of a small part of the city as well. Here urban form which is structured by the soft element of nature –
again, the diagonal is the one which lets the viewer see the hills “the heterotopic rural landscape” and the hard element of net-
in the background of the buildings, acting as an element of com- work – “the wall, later turned ring, of the historic city.” The urban
position. It is worthwhile, given the importance of the diagonal, form with its intention of bringing back nature into the city and
to probe into this element of design, to know if it is only a coinci- the concepts of “hybridity” (a synthesis of extrovert-introvert,
dence or otherwise. dynamic-static, ordinary-extraordinary, hybrid green as a “green
Doxiadis was aware of the importance of this element in or- wall,” etc.), “duality” (linear and grid, formal and informal grids,
ganizing the architectural space, as early as 1936. One can dis- capital and the city, etc.) and proposes a new dimension of aes-
cern from his conclusions which say, “One angle, frequently in thetics destined to deal with the scale of the region.
the centre of the field of vision was left free of buildings and The plan displays a dual pattern in the form of linearity and
opened directly to the surrounding countryside … it was the ‘sa- the grid – the concept of Dynapolis and human community;
cred way’ … the buildings were often disposed so as to incor- growth in a linear direction with the aggregation of a static sec-
porate or accentuate features of the existing landscape and thus tor and the dynamics of the grid over the contoured site.
create a unified composition …”70 He explains the same diag- Doxiadis tried to make a synthesis of political stability and dy-
onal/open path as, “A path always formed an important feature namic urban growth. The political stability is a prerequisite for
in the disposition of the buildings in relation to the landscape … the implementation of Doxiadis’ plan because of its autocratic
Throughout, one can sense the desire to connect the outlines nature; the linear incremental/aggregate growth of the city by
of the different structures with one another and with the lines of the addition of sectors in a predetermined direction requires a
the landscape, to form a continuous unity, and within this unity strong political authority to clear the villages in the way, avoid-
to emphasize one opening: one clear and unobstructed path ing any room for public opinion rather giving supremacy to the
leading out into the Landscape.”71 rational order and the technical opinion of the planner over the
Similarly the housing and ancillary facility areas inside the sec- local tradition and the will of the masses; whereas, the dynam-
tor occupy the voids created by the overlapping of eco-grid ic urban growth is translated in the form of a dynapolis, i.e. the
(ravines – organic structure) and the infrastructure grid (inor- city and its centre both grow in the same direction in space and
ganic structure). The discourse of the plan based on hierarchy time. The plan of Islamabad is in confrontation with the model
tries to attempt an order, but the plan shows a different kind of of Brasilia, in adherence to the Chandigarh model, and marks
order; an order both in natural and man-made objects. This can its point of departure by dealing with the scale of the region – a
also be discerned from Doxiadis’ pioneering magnum opus on plan of the regional city; dispersal of the city into a region of satel-
architectural space as, “Each site was divided into sectors, al- lites.
lowing for extensions within the over-all plan. The placing of the The plan of Islamabad is a quasi-democratic plan (flexibility
buildings was directly related to the contours of the landscape, as to the content of the sector – structure and infill) with an au-
because the Greeks continually sought to achieve order in thoritarian control (the way the grid is guiding the growth of the
space, no matter the space was natural or man-made. For ex- city) – showing the intention to facilitate democracy and plural-
ample, when seen from the main entrance to the Altis at Olympia, ism in the workings of the national government. The huge size
at the southeast corner of the site, the outline of the Hill of of the grid, articulation of the Capitol area (Modern State) origi-
Kornos, to the right, formed an essential balance with the tem- nating an ever widening CBD and the city shows that the pow-
ple of Zeus to the left … The effects of different shapings of er is expressed through a belief in the dynamic urban growth
space were studied (see Euclid’s Optica), and the lines of build- with centralized authority of technological and administrative ra-
ings were brought into harmony with each other and with the tionality. The various elements of the nation-state; leadership,
landscape.”72 administration, wealth, military command, political legitimacy,
The analysis of Doxiadis shows that the architectural space symbolism are no longer synonymous, but are separated and
in ancient Greece was having nature and urbanity both as an dispersed throughout the various buildings of the capital city.
integral part. But this tradition was lost and, astonishingly, he Buildings housing parliament, their staff, ministries, and other
gives a very early break away of this tradition as, “… .the former state bureaucratic agencies now stand alongside the presiden-
impression of a path leading directly through the sanctuary into tial palace as centres and symbols of national power in the ad-
the landscape was utterly destroyed. The Roman Altis has be- ministrative complex/capitol. The representation of the modern

Fig. 19: Islamabad – Location of the “Grand Mosque” and the “Capitol” on the two major axes.
nation state with its apparatus in the form of an administrative of the city of the future, rationally organized; it affords every in-
complex at the tip of the East-West axis, and the location of dividual and family the optimal setting for self-realization.
grand mosque as a symbolic representation of the religion at the “Dystopia and Eutopia are the malign and benign faces of his
tip of the North-South axis (figs. 19 and 20), translates the ide- theory. Of Ekistics’ many percepts, this one is crucial: Cities can
ological duality of the state in the plan. grow to indefinite size so long as that growth respects the hu-
man being, obedient to the Aristotelian tenet that the sole rea-
son for a city’s existence is to satisfy man’s need for safety and
Conclusion happiness. Thus for all its colossal proportions, the city of the
The theory and practice of Doxiadis attempts to mimic the fig- future, ekistically designed, will yield the humaneness and con-
ure of “Hippodamos,” according to Aristotle – a man able to com- tentment of the ancient Greek settlements, an era when skies
prehend the experience of his era and express it in the cities he were clear, water pure, and the size of cities scaled to the pedes-
designed (DOXIADIS, 1968, p. 14). The conception of the four- trian’s pace, a leisured tempo permitting one to cultivate the arts
dimensional city (Dynapolis) and the construction of it with an and mind, with unhurried time for family and friends.”76
“extrovert” synthesis of architecture is the outcome of Doxiadis’ The problem is not the analysis of Doxiadis rather, the visual
comprehension of his era that he attributes to his analysis of the displays of historical facts, however, were clearer than the con-
urban organization from antiquity to the present. His analysis clusions they led to.77 The problematic part is his convictions
are based on a plagiarized interpretation of the structure and and prophecies. For example, his conviction of squaring the cir-
function of cities, of their spatial configurations and activities and cle, echoing the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, that, “What we
how and why they came to be what they are. The interpretation shall look forward to is the construction of large buildings and
has universal applications, both in time and space. It embraces colossal parts of our cities on the basis of the repetition of the
the thinly distributed and static cities of archaic eras, the thick horizontal and the vertical.”78 Similarly his prophetic tone re-
profusion of super-sized and growing cities of the modern age, garding the evolution of architecture as, “I have learned to be
and the ultimate city of the future – the Ecumenopolis.75 able to visit not only other areas but other times as well. I have
The core of Doxiadis’ theory dwells in a global dystopia – an been able to turn back the clock of my mind 3,000 years in the
urban hell, which was based on the rapid population growth, so- swamps of Iraq, thousands of years in the delta of Bengal, many
cialization, mechanization of transport, industrialization and mod- thousands of years with the Nomads of the desert, and centuries
ern technology, urbanization and economic development. with the settlers of Australia and America. I have been enabled
Ekistics’ heaven is the co-existence of all these forces in the form to see how people live and to understand their problems. I have

Fig. 20: Satellite image of the developed part of Islamabad, 1999.
thus learned to see the evolution of architecture.”79 What an- columns in colonnades/arcades, modular rooms, Jalis/screens,
noys most people is that Doxiadis, in his spell binding of poten- and restores the relationship with ground by providing a dense
tial supporters, does not give credit to the ideas of pioneers in mesh of courts, etc. The repetition provides the framework, both
the field and cite examples of their work as precedents for his conceptual and spatial, for different possibilities of inhabitation.
own.80 This is also one of the reasons that have obscured the Framework replaces form and inhabitation replaces function as
original contribution of Doxiadis to our field. the guiding concepts of this 1960s rift within high modernism.82
The analysis of the two projects (Punjab University and I do not want to imply that the genesis of this typological inno-
Islamabad) attempts to show the (re)invention of an architec- vation was happening in isolation only in the works of Doxiadis.
tural typology based on what Doxiadis calls an “extrovert” syn- The predecessors whose work led to the emergence of this ty-
thesis, which is capable of expansion while preserving the hu- pology, just to name a few, were Bernard Pite (English Mission
man scale, adaptable to a range of programmes and contexts, Hospital, 1893-1896), Le Corbusier (University city for students,
flexible in articulation and guarantees cohesion and homo- project 1925, “Fort L’Empereur” project Algiers, 1931-1934, the
geneity of form. The example of the successful implementation extendible museum, 1939 and La Sainte-Baume, 1948), Louis
of such a typology is the “academic complex” of Punjab univer- Kahn (Philadelphia, proposal for change within existing urban
sity, whereas Islamabad offers us its application at the scale of structure, 1956), J. Bakema (Lijn ban, Rotterdam, 1956), Aldo
the city or rather a region in the form of the CBD. The academ- Van Eyck (Children’s Home in Amsterdam, 1957-1960), etc.
ic complex is a horizontal multi-courtyard plan allowing for fu- There were also contemporary architects with Doxiadis as well,
ture programmatic changes while evoking Pakistani vernacular such as Kenzo Tange (Tokyo Bay Plan, 1960), A. Isozaki (Spatial
architecture; whereas the articulation of CBD typology offers us Structure, 1960), Piet Blom (Noah’s Ark project for the urban-
an opening to urbanism and its large scale and multi-speed ization of the Netherlands), etc. who were working with the same
movement, programmatic complexity, giving space to the active typology.
unfolding of urban life without losing order, and to landscape and The extrovert synthesis was developed throughout the 1960s
its surface and temporal qualities.81 by several other architects such as Candilis-Josic-Woods
The extrovert synthesis articulates the building as a flexible (Toulouse-le-Mirail, 1961-1974, Frankfurt/M urban renewal pro-
framework rather than a rigid container. The building type in- ject and the free university Berlin, 1963-1973) and crystallized
troduced by Doxiadis in an “academic complex” and the “CBD” by Le Corbusier’s project of Venice Hospital of 1964 and
area is low-rise and high density, homogenous in its layout; it reached its prominence in the works of H. Hertzberger in the
consists of a systematic repetition of simple elements such as 1970s, where it was re-formulated as “Poly-Valent form.” In

1974, it was re-introduced as “field typology/urbanism” by Alison uments, mosques, palaces and edifices of grandeur. (DA – Doxiadis
Smithson, though, largely accrediting it to the works of Candilis- Associates, The University of the Panjab, Bulletin No. 56 (Athens,
Josic-Woods but an interesting historical link that she provided Greece, July 1963), p. 1.
was that of the example/illustration of “Fatehpur Sikri” as prob- 5. DA – Doxiadis Associates, The University of the Panjab, Bulletin No.
56 (Athens, Greece, July 1963), p. 2.
ably being the earliest predecessor, which is the same example
6. Ibid., p. 2
that Doxiadis also analyses along with several other examples 7. Ibid., p. 2
from the region for developing his extrovert synthesis. 8. Ibid., p. 2
The debate identified by Alison Smithson’s article of 1974 and 9. Ibid., p. 1.
Le Corbusier’s Venice Hospital project relies on the crisis 10. Ibid., p. 2.
brought in by Team-X to the mainstream modernists’ practice 11. Ibid., p. 4.
in the form of “Mat or Field Urban Typology” by attempting to as- 12. Ibid., p. 4.
similate the North African and Arab vernacular on one side, and 13. Ibid., p. 4.
the other trying to enrich architectural conception with the prob- 14. Ibid., p. 3.
lematic combination of structure and infrastructure with an in- 15. Ibid., p. 4.
16. Ibid., p. 5.
creasing programmatic complexity of larger projects. Doxiadis
17. Ibid., p. 5.
presents us witha parallel track, somewhat advanced but at the 18. Ibid., p. 5.
same time problematic; he gives mat a much older/historical 19. In the words of Doxiadis, “A broader consideration of the urban pat-
precedence (Mohenjo Daro, Taxila and Fatehpur Sikri) and in- tern of Lahore, its zoning, and trends of growth indicates the suit-
genuity, but also practically demonstrates the ability of the ty- ability of the location of the site and opens up the possibilities of its
pology to deal with the scale of a single project to that of the scale successful integration into the developing city. Its grounds cover an
of the city. We find overlap and interlocking of various layers area of 800 acres which are to accommodate the new complex of
and scale levels in the plan of Islamabad (1959) that Christopher the university town. The contemplated road system in the area and
Alexander was strongly advocating for (in 1966), which ad- the dynamics of growth in Lahore will eventually make the site ac-
vances Doxiadis’ project way ahead of its time well into the fu- cessible from all parts of the city, by public or university transport.”
ture but at the same time losing the opportunity to become a (DA - Doxiadis Associates, The University of the Panjab, Bulletin No.
56, July 1963, Athens, Greece, p. 1).
canonical reference. In the plan of Islamabad, at one level there 20. The understanding of local architecture culture from the scale of the
is overlapping of elements like nature/landscape and infra- region to the city is described by Doxiadis as, “The path to the un-
structure by integrating the formal grid (2x2 infrastructure) and derstanding of the Punjab and its culture winds through the remote
the eco-grid (ravines-organic structure), but within this process passes of the Khyber and the wilderness of Hindukush and contin-
of articulating the structure of the city, he develops voids that are ues along the existing ancient road (G.T. Road on which Lahore is
carved out of this nature-infrastructure overlapping. These voids located), bisecting the whole of the subcontinent and linking this
are charged with the programme of the “Human Community” country with Iran and the rest of the world. Along this road one still
which includes housing/residential, schools, market, civic and sees the remains of fortresses, caravan-serais and inns lying at dis-
other amenities, etc. These voids are the discontinuous spatial tances of one day’s riding on horseback. Following this road, one
elements of the plan, “A place for rest in a restless city … An notices a progressive transition in the architectural morhphology. To
the eyes of the modern architect this morhphologic transition starts
Oasis with a Metropolis.”83 In other words, the plan of Islamabad from the warlike austerity of the Khyber fortresses, changes to a more
offers a spatial pattern of discontinuous continuity. peaceful rural character in the plains, and finally evolves into the com-
The extrovert synthesis of architectural form or field typology posite and intellectual architecture of Lahore. This is the road to true
was not only instrumental in translating the agenda of 1950s- understanding. At the cross-roads of Central and Western Asia, the
1960s urbanism but also helped Doxiadis to crystallize his own Punjab is one of the oldest cradles of culture. Having absorbed bel-
thoughts enabling him to further develop its vocabulary and ligerent invasions and cultural infiltrations, it finally established itself
grammar through his practice/projects. Besides accommodat- into a highly refined and culturally radiant centre for the whole coun-
ing “structuralism” in architecture and urban planning, it is the try.” (DA - Doxiadis Associates, The University of the Panjab,”
only element out of Doxiadis’ legacy, which is considerably Bulletin No. 56, July 1963, Athens, Greece, p. 1).
original/genuine contribution that has stood the test of time and 21. Ibid., p. 1.
22. Ibid., p. 1.
proved itself valid. It has found its revival in the contemporary
23. Ibid., p. 4.
discourse and is recently being resurrected as “Mat Building re- 24. Ibid., p. 3.
vival” or “Mat” typology/Urbanism, supported by documenting 25. Ibid., p. 4.
and illustrating the use of it in even contemporary projects be- 26. The first plan of 1959 is published in 1963 as “DA - Doxiadis Asso-
cause of its numerous qualities of flexibility, universal applica- ciates, The University of the Panjab, Bulletin No. 56, July 1963,
bility, adaptability and also pointing towards its enormous un- Athens, Greece.” The second plan appears as a reproduction in his
locked/untapped potential for the future.84 magnum-opus Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements pub-
lished in 1968.
27. DA - Doxiadis Associates, Islamabad, Bulletin No. 18, October 1960,
Athens, Greece, p. 1.
Notes and references 28. C.A. Doxiadis, “Architecture in evolution,” Annual Discourse at the
1. Eliel Saarinen, The City: Its Growth, Its Decay, Its Future (M. I. T. Royal Institute of British Architects, London, March 10, 1960. (Reprinted
Press, 1965); S. Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture (3rd ed.), from the R.I.B.A. Journal, September, October, 1960, pp. 22-23).
(London, Oxford University Press, 1956); C.A. Doxiadis, Architec- 29. C.A. Doxiadis, “Dynapolis: The City of the Future,” Lecture at the
ture in Transition (London, Hutchinson, 1963). OSLO ARKITEKTFORENING, Document R-GA 185 (February
2. Alison Smithson, Team 10 Primer (M.I.T. Press), November 1974; 1960), p. 77.
Alison Smithson, “The emergence of TEAM 10 out of C. I. A. M.,” 30. Ibid., p. 1.
AAGS Theory and History papers 1.82 (London, Architectural Asso- 31. Ibid., p. 2.
ciation, 1982). 32. Ibid., p. 12.
3. Arnulf Lüchinger, Structuralism in Architecture and Urban Planning 33. Ibid., p. 12.
(Stuttgart, Karl Krämer Verlag, 1981), p. 35. 34. Ibid., p. 2.
4. As described by Doxiadis, Lahore, the capital of the Punjab, is one 35. Ibid., p. 4.
of the legendary cities of the East with its origins lost in antiquity. 36. Ibid., p. 21.
During the last stages of the Mughal administration it was second in 37. Ibid., p. 24.
importance only to the national capital, and was adorned with mon- 38. Ibid., p. 6.

39. Ibid., p. 11. 64. Doxiadis Associates, Islamabad – The New Capital of Pakistan,
40. Ibid., p. 26. Bulletin No. 64 (Athens, Greece, March 1964).
41. Ibid., p. 26. 65. Ibid.
42. Ibid., p. 26. 66. C.A. Doxiadis, Architectural Space in Ancient Greece (Jaqueline
43. Ibid., p. 28 Tyrwhitt, ed.), (MIT Press, 1972), p. 23.
44. Ibid., p. 28. 67. Sigfried Giedion, in Architecture and the Phenomena of Transition
45. Ibid., p. 30. (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1971), p. 9 (quoting A.
46. Ibid., p. 31. von Gerkan in a review of Doxiadis’ thesis, in Gnomen, 14 (1938),
47. Ibid., pp. 36-39. pp. 589-634).
48. Ibid., p. 40. 68. This ratio is also something not to be found in Doxiadis’ discourse,
49. Ibid., p. 44. but it can be precisely measured in the plan.
50. Ibid., p. 48-52. 69. C.A. Doxiadis, The Scale of the City (Islamabad, Pakistan, C.D.A.
51. Ibid., pp. 52-54.. Library, 1962), pp. 19-20.
52. Ibid., pp. 1, 12 & 62. 70. C.A. Doxiadis, Architectural Space in Ancient Greece (Jaqueline
53. Ibid., p. 62. Tyrwhitt, ed.), (MIT Press, 1972), p. 5.
54. Ibid., pp. 63-75. 71. Ibid., pp. 8 and 72.
55. Ibid., p. 76. 72. Ibid., pp. 20-21.
56. C.A. Doxiadis, “Principles of planning – The Federal Capital of 73. Ibid., p. 76.
Pakistan,” Dox-PA 29 (Athens, Greece, July 1959), p. 6. 74. Ibid., p. 22.
57. DA – Doxiadis Associates, Islamabad, Bulletin No. 18 (Athens, 75. Louis Winnick, “The Athens Center of Ekistics: The Urban World
Greece, October 1960), p. 2. According to Doxiadis,” FF Urban History – Chapter VII, Part 3 (May
58. C.A. Doxiadis, “Dynapolis: The City of the Future,” Lecture at the 1989) – FF Archives, pp. 38.
OSLO ARKITEKTFORENING, Document R-GA 185 (February 76. Ibid., pp. 38-39.
1960), p. 44. 77. Ibid., pp. 44-45.
59. Doxiadis Associates, “Islamabad – a preliminary program and plan,” 78. C.A. Doxiadis, “Architecture in Evolution,” Annual Discourse at the
Report No. 25, Dox-PA 77 (Athens, Greece, May 1960), p. 278. Royal Institute of British Architects, London, March 10, 1960. (Reprinted
60. C.A. Doxiadis, “Architecture in Evolution,” Annual Discourse at the from the R.I.B.A. Journal, September, October, 1960, p. 20).
Royal Institute of British Architects, London, March 10, 1960. (Reprinted 79. Ibid., p. 23.
from the R.I.B.A. Journal, September, October, 1960, p. 19). 80. Ezra Ehrenhrantz and Ogden Tanner, “The Remarkable Dr. Doxiadis,”
61. C.A. Doxiadis, Architectural Space in Ancient Greece (Jaqueline abstracted from Architectural Forum, vol. 114, no. 5 (May 1961),
Tyrwhitt, ed.), (MIT Press, 1972), p. 22. pp. 112-116, 154 B.
62. C.A. Doxiadis, The Scale of the City (Islamabad, Pakistan, C.D.A. 81. Hashim Sarkis, Case: Le Corbusier’s Venice Hospital and the Mat
Library), 1962, p. 18. Building Revival (Munich, Prestel Publications, 2002), p. 14.
63. C.A. Doxiadis, “Architecture in Evolution,” Annual Discourse at the 82. Ibid., p. 14.
Royal Institute of British Architects, London, March 10, 1960. (Re- 83. Quoting Aldo Van Eyck in Smithson, Team 10 Meetings, 89, p. 78.
printed from the R.I.B.A. Journal, September, October, 1960, pp. 13- 84. Hashim Sarkis, Case: Le Corbusier’s Venice Hospital and the Mat
18). Building Revival (Munich, Prestel Publications, 2002), p. 16.
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Ekistics, vol.72, 2005 1

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Fig. 3: Master Plan of 1959.

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Fig. 6: Punjab University – Interior of “Courts” and exterior of “Surrounding green.”

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Fig. 9: Master Plan of 1959 (left) and Revised plan (right).

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Fig. 10: Punjab University Faculty of

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Fig. 17: Islamabad – Urban form I: Dynamic articulation of space.

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Fig. 18: Islamabad – Urban form II: Static articulation of space.

etc.) spaces.”69 ty.

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