Islamabad, the creation of a new capital

Abstract

My subject is the problem of the creation of a new capital city and its solution. I will analyse and present it as a general case of interest to all of us, and as an illustration I will take the example of Islamabad, the new capital of Pakistan which was conceived in 1959, planned from 1959 to 1963, and which entered the implementation phase in 1961. The analysis and presentation of this problem as a general case is necessary because in the field of human settlements we are inclined to attach too much importance to the example and tend to imitate it; whereas what are important are the underlying principles which led to the specific solution - a solution which in some ways is coincidental, as it represents the application of principles of general validity on specific (coincidental) features of nature.