Background

• After split from India, Karachi was the only major

city in country-Bombay, Calcutta, madras and
Delhi in India.
• Karachi selected as the capital-a large city,
convenient center of sea and air transportation.
• Not a satisfactory solution-climate, tradition and
the existing buildings, not adequate in number or
to the standards required by a capital.
• The layout and structure of the existing port city
did not allow it to take on the functions of a
modern capital.
• On the other hand, the influx of refugees
intensified the existing problems and created new
ones-nomads.
Developing centers in Pakistan
Karachi preliminary
scheme, 1948 • Separate administrative sector-Swayne Thomas & Sir
Patrick Abercrombie.
• Administrative sector-centre, 65,000 inhabitants NE
or South of Karachi, large satellite
• Other areas to meet housing and development.
• Differed public opinion, few against a separate admin
area away from people.
• Bundar road as unifying element with a monument of
Ali Jinnah the founder of the nation.
• Axis as city backbone, with spider leg extension
• Each leg has housing of 200000-300,000 people.
• Neighborhood units-4000
• Criticized- expensive, no green areas and less vehicle
• It worked as skeleton for design of Islamabad.
 Solution to issue
• The government of Pakistan decided to cope with the situation by
creating a new capital.
• Double task-aid for refugee or establishment in civic sense. Latter
was chosen.
• In February 1959, a report was issued by Dr. Doxiadis with
reference to this problem
• The result of this report was that two areas were suggested for the
new capital, one outside Karachi and the other to the north of
Rawalpindi.

• During late July and early August 1959, Dr. Doxiadis visited the site
of the capital-the report "Impressions from the site – The
necessary data" issued.
• February 24th, 1960- ISLAMABAD name was given to city.
 Opinions of • A human settlement is a multi-dimensional subject
• even the best plans show only two or three of the elements of a

planner settlement (shells, networks and nature), and we miss the

other two, man and society.
• We must find ways to present these, as well as all the other
aspects: economic, social, administrative, technological,
cultural, etc.
• Capital should not just be a growing city, it should
accommodate administration, security, public facilities, etc.
• If investment made within the existing city, 50% of it would be
for the acquisition of land, widening of streets, and remodeling
of facilities to serve the new functions. Capital expenditure per
square foot of administrative building would be doubled.
• If the investment were to be made in a new, non developed
Economic alternatives area, the increased land value of the surrounding area would
accrue to the government – which would initiate action and
investment.
 Stages
• Administrative city similar to fatehpur sikri, Chandigarh was planned.
• Similar to Calcutta, this was also due to colonialism, like Aurangabad.
• Several reports of the problems related to the creation of Islamabad were prepared by Doxiadis
Associates.
• size of the Capital, the cost of the project, the facilities needed, highways, transportation in general,
and so on mentioned.
• May 24th, 1960 the preliminary master Plan of Islamabad and the planning principles that will make this
capital a model for "A City of the Future“
• The metropolitan area planned for a future population of 2,500,000 inhabitants within a period of two
generations.
• Potwar plateau for interior- traditional purpose, and grand trunk road- Muslim conqueror's old route
into heart of India.
• Drew inspiration from Taxila-rational town planning.
 • Islamabad in high developmental area, undergoing
rapid economic development.
• New dam construction, steel works expanding.
• ‘ there will be greater agglomeration in the future.’
• City to Mega polis to a universal city( Ecumenopolis)
• Aims for a total solution to issue- Ekistics- study of
human settlements- future expansion with culture and
tradition.

• metropolis
• then part of a megalopolis
• it is a link in the greatest city that
man has ever seen, which is going
to cover regions and continents
with its branches - the universal
city, or ecumenopolis
Factors for site selection
• Transportation and communications
• Factors of national interest
• Defense
• Economic factors
• Civic factors
• Existing facilities
• Rawalpindi- aid in facilities and initial housing
needs.
• Chaklala airport of Rawalpindi-air transportations, the Rawal dam-water supply, the existing
railroad and highway connections-communication needs and housing while construction.

• Contribute in avoiding large investments during the first phase of development of Islamabad.
Center Of Gravity • The basic consideration for anyone studying
the location of a new capital city is that it
should lie in the center of gravity of its total
area.
• Discovered that during this whole analysis,
thinking in terms of an isolated state
• To see it as part of the whole world, exclude
border areas and place much greater
importance on the lines connecting state
with the outside world, in which case we may
well have one center imposed by the sea,
others by land and air-transportation, and
another as the result of all these
 Combination of a. Nature alone

elements
b. Nature with networks
c. Nature with shells
d. Nature with networks and shells are combination
of elements.
• concentric circles and assumed that the
settlement would expand like waves in air or water.
But this is not going to happen.
• The only solution to save a growing settlement
Combination of elements, formation of city, from a slow death is a uni-directional growth,
process which leads to a parabolic form, an ideal dynamic
city or dynapolis
• Start with settlement for lower income
 Conception of master plan
• The Landscape Pattern and the Highways
• Backbone of the Islamabad Metropolitan Area
Master Plan is formed by two highways
 Islamabad Highway
 Murree Highway- the alignment dictated by the
natural landscape pattern and the existing man
made obstacles.
• The chief characteristic of the landscape is that it
runs from north-east to south-west along valleys
formed by a series of hills running in the same
direction.
• The Murree Highway had to follow this direction
through a valley formed by two hills
 Designation of main transport
• the Islamabad highway has been aligned vertically to the Murree Highway between the existing
airport and Shakarparian hills.
• Two more highways, by-passing the existing town of Rawalpindi, have been proposed.
• On the basis of the above ideas, a system of four highways becomes the basic step for the
metropolitan area.
• These axes form a big square, which will define all future transportation systems and all major
functions within the metropolitan area.
 Formation of the Metropolitan
Area
• The principal system defines three distinctive areas:
a. The proper area of Islamabad.
b. The area of Rawalpindi, the center of which is the city of
Rawalpindi.
c. The National Park area-retain certain agricultural functions
for several years, sites provided for a national sports center,
the national university, national research institute, etc.
d. The areas of Islamabad proper and Rawalpindi are both open
for expansion towards the south-west, while the National
Park area is rather districted from the surrounding hills and
Soan river to the south-east.
 Dynametropolis
• The cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi will develop as twin cities
serving each other in complementary ways.
• Islamabad-capital, serve mainly administrative and cultural
functions.
• Rawalpindi-regional center serving industrial and commercial
functions.
• The master plan for both cities has the flexibility to allow for future
expansions of the center.
• It has been designed on the basis of the ideal city of the future and to
form a dyna-metropolis.
• Each is planned to develop dynamically towards the south-west,
their center cores growing simultaneously and together with their
residential and other functions.
• Road reconstructed for parallel expansion.
• Issue of meteoric development- solved by letting growth in
segments, around a communal axis linked to national administration
office.
• Administration to be stable, surrounding city to be flexible to
changes.
Dynamically growing
Dynametropolis- 2 nuclei
metropolis
Islamabad
• Metropolitan area sub-divided into sectors,
Communities Class V, for 20,000-40,000 people
based on income
• The sub-division resulted from pattern of
principal roads placed 2,200 yards apart in both-
directions.
• This pattern forms a modulus in the town and
maintains a unified scale for area.
• It facilitates the road traffic, organization of
the various land-use zones into communities of
the same order.
 Road • Highway: 1200 ft- serve high speed motor traffic
• Secondary roads: 600 ft

hierarchy • The third category roads: 100-300 ft wide for

residential communities.
• Fourth: leads to individual houses and buildings, run
into the residential communities. Segregation of
motorized and pedestrian traffic.
• Longitudinal sections of the roads follow the same
classification.
• the landscape designed, and on roads for the
pedestrian, there are even steps where the ground
rises steeply.
• The human scale and that of the machine are kept
clearly distinct, and the elements of road design
strictly observe the requirements of this separation.
• The many zones of Islamabad serving various functions have been planned to allow for future
expansion.
• The administrative sector is placed at the heart of Islamabad, from which it spreads first towards
and then along the hills.
• The civic center is developed in a strip running south-west, which is the main direction of the
town's growth.
• The residential and the light-industrial zones follow the same trend.
 Rawalpindi
• Rawalpindi-man-made obstacle in designing the new capital.
• Reason to place Islamabad at such a distance:
• form an independent settlement for purposes of allowing the design of a physical plan
independent of the existing restrictions imposed by the plan of Rawalpindi town.
• provide the new capital with services and buildings already existing in Rawalpindi in order to
save the maximum amount of costs.
• Rawalpindi has been the subject of a special study so as to permit the coordinated and
balanced growth of the two towns in a balanced way.
• A master plan for Rawalpindi was prepared, and regulations about zoning and interim
development control were proposed.
The National Park
• Serve both Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
• The National Park has been designed to provide
space for:
a. educational and scientific institutes of
national importance
b. recreational facilities, both active and passive
c. agricultural areas
• The National Park already has the Rawal lake
which was created in 1961 following the
construction of a dam to collect irrigation water
and to supply water to Rawalpindi.
 Unity of Scale
• Unity of scale as city not conglomeration of isolated
and unrelated spaces, but one entity of interrelated
spaces.
• A scale measurement determined to govern the
elements composing the city-plots, streets, open
spaces, squares, roads, etc.
• The selection of a system of axes equally important for
scale.
• Based on a study of the scale of the city -volume,
heights, densities, and floor indices of the buildings
were specified for each particular sector.
• This study led to concrete proposals for the public-
buildings area
 ADMINISTRATIVE SECTOR OF ISLAMABAD
• The administration on a national level, cultural services, non-governmental institutions are 3 sectors
• two types of central functions provided within the city; those serving the inhabitants
• and those which represent purely capital-city functions on a national level placed at the foothills
within a more or less elongated area
• These were based on number of civil servants, incomes of the inhabitants, expected traffic density,
and other general data.
• The military headquarters-special groups of buildings
• The diplomatic enclave is located outside and below the area
• free movement of traffic and facilitates speedy orientation as people, when moving towards or from
the administrative sector, will be travelling at right angles to the hills.
• The administrative sector is developed in an elongated synthesis.
 The • The main axis runs through the core of Islamabad.
• Capital Avenue looks towards the presidential palace
administrative located on the top of a hill.

sector within • Due to the fixed road, administrative centre on a

higher level– which is its brain centre and pulsating
Islamabad heart - will dominate the city even after it has
expanded and fully grown along the patterns provided
for.
Interrelation of functions in
the administrative centre
• new capital of Pakistan-proper environment provided for
the country's administrative functions.
• The hills lying north-west of Rawal lake form an ideal
setting for the administrative sector, at the core of the
city of Islamabad and at the end of the main axis.
• basis of the theory and principles of the city of the future
(dynapolis) the administrative as well as the central
sector of the city both begin at the core of Islamabad.
• The Capitol complex will lie at the heart of the synthesis.
• It is from here that the administrative sector will have to
be developed towards and following the direction of the
Margala Hills, in order to spread along them in the
future. zoning map of the
administrative centre of
Islamabad.
 THE LAYOUT
PLAN-Organization
• Grid layout- based on Islam culture of strict
geometric patterns.
• Each sector (Community Class V) of Islamabad
is self contained and self-supported-30-40,000
• It is sub-divided into three or four smaller
Communities (Class IV) by income groups of
occupants- 10,000 people.
• In the centre of the sector is the civic centre,
containing all types of shopping, business and
civic activities.
• Each Class IV Community is subdivided into
several Communities Class III-3000 which are
further subdivided into Communities Class II-
100
• Class I- family of 2 or 3
 Hierarchy of Functions
• Adequate space has been provided for buildings serving
certain functions at various levels, in accordance with the
number of people served by these buildings.
• In each sector or Class V Community there is space for
three or four secondary schools, each for a Class IV
Community.
• There are three or four primary schools per Class III
Community and a kindergarten or children's playground
in each Class II Community.
• The same hierarchical planning of spaces of several sizes
is provided for functions such as health, recreation,
sports activities, etc.
• This arrangement best serves the inhabitants of each
sector and with the least time required for the approach.
The Landscape • many ravines cut the fields from north to south.

and Climate • The ground continuously undulates in one direction,

giving great variety and challenge for architectural
treatment of buildings and green spaces.
• This natural landscape has been fully respected when
designing the layout of each sector, and green spaces
created by this physical feature have been fully
exploited by locating such functions as schools,
gardens, parks, and playgrounds next to them.
• Climatic conditions have been also taken into account,
with orientations for the purpose of insulation and
taking advantage of the prevailing winds being studied
thoroughly.
Social Planning • Whether the inhabitants are government servants or
supporting population, incomes vary very considerably.
• Complete intermixing would cause difficulties in physical
planning and could also create social problems.
• After a sociological study, the principle adopted was that
gradual integration should be sought, both to help the
lower-income people to mature, and to assure the
comfort of the higher income-classes
• Each Class IV Community provides housing for no more
than four, and preferably only three income groups.
• Another question was whether civil servants should live
separate from other citizens of Islamabad
• Although government-housing management favoured
the grouping of government houses in specific areas, the
opinion of sociologists won the day and civil-service
housing has been mixed in with that of the rest of the
population.
All coners assigned based on income
With each promotion they change houses.
‘we must start by covering needs, and not by building monuments’
 Pedestrian and
Vehicle Traffic • Class V-pedestrian and vehicle traffic segregated by a
road system where the scales of human and motor-
vehicle movements differ.
• Pedestrians move within the human community though
a spatial hierarchy from small pedestrian streets towards
the larger ones of a Class II Community, then to the
centre of a Class III Community, and so on.
• Spaces and perspectives created along way agree with
the same hierarchical order.
• This layout is for roads leading to specific targets
aesthetically related and presenting a unity of scale.
• By the extensive use of cul-de-sacs at the end of the
access roads, motor traffic follows a pattern of roads
leading to individual houses without interfering with the
pedestrian-street systems.

Pedestrian and vehicular roads

facilities • Water supply -Water storage tanks, filtration plants,
and the distribution system
• Sewerage and Drainage-A sewage treatment plant,
designed in collaboration with Dorr-Oliver
• Road Construction- the two main highways, width of
two lanes, sufficient for the needs of first stage
development.
• In addition to the two lanes, there is a ten-foot
shoulder on either side.
• Roads servicing highways and principal roads were
also under construction and will carry all traffic
required for proper development of residential and
industrial areas.
 STREETS AND HOUSES
• Street Design-The Positive Space:
• While designing detailed layout plans, great attention was paid to the
shape of each space in a given community.
• The usual weakness with regard to the shape of space in the
contemporary city is that it becomes negative compared to what it
was in the past when space in the old city was positive.
• In the arrangement of isolated buildings, space is quite often lost.
• Detached houses are the greatest challenge in terms of a proper
shaping of space.
• It is difficult to form them into a synthesis, and areas containing
detached houses often turn into completely negative space.
• This mostly happens when small low-income houses are involved,
which does not allow for the individual building to be properly fitted
into the over-all landscape.
Adjustment to • It was attempted to situate the houses as much as
possible in accordance with the morphology of the
the site.

Landscape
• The undulating landscape of Islamabad offers the city
a high degree of variety, and in the most economical
way.
• Introducing yet more marked variations would have
deprived the plan of simplicity and been tiresome in
many ways.
House Design • With few exceptions, Islamabad plots vary from 111
sq. yards to about 3,000 sq. yards, depending on
-The Plots income group.
• As a principle, and to improve urban economics, the
frontage dimensions of plots are less than their depth.

• Most plots are rectangular.

• Special efforts were made to avoid

irregular plots, especially in low-
income areas.
 Minimum
Accommodation
• In Islamabad no house has less than two rooms and a
kitchen, W. C., and a shower room.
• Sufficient space is left for outdoor living.
• Each house has closed, semi-covered or open living
spaces, necessary for comfortable living in a country
with cold winters and very hot summers, is supplied
with running water and electricity, and connected with
the sewage system.
Privacy
• Privacy within the residential unit is very important.
• It was given serious attention in designing individual
houses, especially those near the civic centres.
• For this reason, residential apartments are few, as they
do not offer privacy as readily as do individual houses.