'Planned' Political Capitals: From conceptual ideas to lived constructs | Research | 2013
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'Planned' Political Capitals: From conceptual ideas to lived constructs
Research, The Bartlett School of Architecture
London, 2015
Tania Oramas Dorta
In a time when rapid urbanization is occurring around the world, this research aims at contributing to the spatial and social understanding of the so-called ‘planned cities’ by analyzing some historic examples. The study focuses specifically on cities where politics constituted a powerful force behind their design, referred to by some as ‘political capitals’ (Vale 1992; Hall, 2006), or ‘cities of reproduction’ by other (Hillier, 1996). In order to consider different historic contexts and urban design ideas, the research takes a chronological approach and selects Washington DC (USA, 1791), Brasilia (Brazil, 1956), Abuja (Nigeria, 1979) and Astana (Kazakhstan, 1997-2007) as case studies. The main aim is to understand how urban conceptual ideas have been translated into patterns of experienced space in a context where the ‘scenarios’ of social complexity have been built overnight. Grounded in Lefebvre’s ideas (1974), the research adopts a holistic approach that analyzes these cities from the conceptual, representational and perceptual dimensions of space.
Space syntax’s configurational theory and methodology*, are used in this study to unveil the spatial morphology of the selected cities and subsequently link it with social processes.
London, 2015
Tania Oramas Dorta
In a time when rapid urbanization is occurring around the world, this research aims at contributing to the spatial and social understanding of the so-called ‘planned cities’ by analyzing some historic examples. The study focuses specifically on cities where politics constituted a powerful force behind their design, referred to by some as ‘political capitals’ (Vale 1992; Hall, 2006), or ‘cities of reproduction’ by other (Hillier, 1996). In order to consider different historic contexts and urban design ideas, the research takes a chronological approach and selects Washington DC (USA, 1791), Brasilia (Brazil, 1956), Abuja (Nigeria, 1979) and Astana (Kazakhstan, 1997-2007) as case studies. The main aim is to understand how urban conceptual ideas have been translated into patterns of experienced space in a context where the ‘scenarios’ of social complexity have been built overnight. Grounded in Lefebvre’s ideas (1974), the research adopts a holistic approach that analyzes these cities from the conceptual, representational and perceptual dimensions of space.
Space syntax’s configurational theory and methodology*, are used in this study to unveil the spatial morphology of the selected cities and subsequently link it with social processes.