The Emerging Asian City by Bharne Vinayak

Author:Bharne, Vinayak
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-136-20851-5
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

The beginning

Islamabad remained relatively less known for the first decade of its creation. It embodied the concept of ‘dynapolis’, a term used by Doxiadis to represent a dynamically expanding city. Motorists were facilitated through the grid of rectilinear streets drastically superimposed on the natural terrain to obtain efficiency in vehicular flow, but making pedestrian movement increasingly difficult.3 Four principal highways connected the city to the hinterland and beyond. The residential communities had to adapt to the two-square-kilometre grid-based physical development that followed the planning exercise. Much of this development was institutionally guided by the Capital Development Authority (CDA). The administrative complexes such as Presidency, Prime Minister’s House, Federal Secretariat, ministries and other offices were primarily located along Constitution Avenue. Commercial buildings and private office complexes were located in what was called the Blue Area along Jinnah Avenue between F and G sectors. Land for a grand mosque was also provisioned at the edge of E-7 and E-8 sectors and filled by the exquisite design of the Faisal Mosque by well-known Turkish architect Vedat Dalokaye. In short, the scheme of Islamabad was founded on the high dreams of its propounders, administrators, architects, planners, developers and builders; the people were invited to participate after the core enactments were already in place.

‘Islamabad is half the size of Arlington (cemetery) but twice as dead’.4 These remarks by an American diplomat during a routine visit in the 1960s sum up the initial development phase of the infant administrative polis. The first sight of the city showed identical administrative blocks of the Pakistan secretariat along with a few ancillary buildings and residences. Road networks were being gradually expanded, with planners and developers attempting to bolster the city’s green cover by adding a plethora of mulberry and other trees. The early inhabitants of the new capital were serving and retired officers of the armed forces, bureaucrats, construction contractors, along with a few businessmen and traders. Most belonged to the upper-middle income class and owned their own vehicles. Public transport was negligible and cost of living was high. The climate was bearable (especially summers), the environment serene and the official patronage (for the city) promised a great future for the capital. Several wealthy landlords, agriculturists and businessmen also made second and third houses in the city. A small band of clubs and markets emerged to cause the first ripples in the otherwise barren social landscape of the neopolis. But very few living facilities for the working classes and mid-level staff were developed in the city during the first decade.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.