Constantinos A. Doxiadis

My subject is the problems inherent in the creation of a new capital city and their solutions. My analysis and presentation will be as of a general case of interest to all of us, and by way of illustration I shall 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 question should be examined as a case of more general interest, because in the field of human settlements we are inclined to attach too much importance to some existing example and tend to imitate it, whereas what is important are the underlying principles that have led to a specific solution - a solution in some ways coincidental, as it represents the application of principles of general validity to specific (coincidental) features of nature.