Life and Career with works of Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis. Theory of Urban Design presentation - CA Doxiadis : Ekistics theory, Islamabad master plan, Aspra Spitia introduction, Name of books and journals with bibliography

1. Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis
Architect & Urban Planner
Submitted By:
Moksha Bhatia
M.Arch (Urban Design)
Semester - 1

2. Contents
• Introduction
• Life and Career
• Theories and Work
- Ekistics
- Master Plan Of Islamabad
- Aspra Spitia
• Other Works
• Books and Journals
• Bibliography

3. Introduction
• C. A. Doxiadis, was a Greek architect and town
planner.
• He was known as the lead architect of Islamabad.
• He is one of the preeminent figures of 20th century
city and regional planning.
• He designed more than forty new cities around the
world based on his vision of the emerging global
city
• The father of ekistics.
(Ekistics concerns the science of human settlements,
including regional, city, community planning and
dwelling design).
• His planning theory, ekistics, aimed to propose a
radically new approach to urban and regional
planning.
“We do not learn only from
great minds; we learn from
everyone, if only we observe and
inquire.”

4. Life and Career
1913 Doxiadis was born on 14 May
1913.
He graduated in architectural
engineering from the Technical
University of Athens in 1935,
obtaining a doctorate from
Charlottenburg University.
He was appointed Chief Town
Planning Officer for the Greater
Athens Area.
He founded Doxiadis Associates,
a private firm of consulting
engineers, which grew rapidly
until it had offices on five
continents and projects in 40
countries.
1935
1937
1951
The real city is the whole territory within
which people move every day.

5. Theories and Work
• Theory of Ekistics
• Master Plan Of Islamabad
• Aspra Spitia

6. Ekistics
• The term 'ekistics' was coined
by Constantinos Apostolos Doxiadis in
1942
• Ekistics concerns the science of human
settlements.
• It co-ordinates economics, social sciences,
political and administrative sciences,
technology and aesthetics into a coherent
whole (sticking together) and leads to the
creation of a new type of human
settlement.
• It is the scinece which illuminates
problems of human settlements and
defines the way which architecture must
go.
EKISTICS
POLITICAL
SCINCES
SOCIAL
SCIENCES
ECONOMICS
ADMINISTR
ATIVE
SCEINCES
TECHNO-
LOGY
AESTHETICS
Ekistics and the Sciences directly
contributing to it.

7. This science, termed Ekistics, will
take into consideration :-
• The principles man takes into
account when building his
settlements.
• The evolution of human
settlements through history in
terms of size and quality.
The target is to build the city of
optimum size, that is, a city which
respects human dimensions.
Since there is no point in resisting
development, we should try to
accommodate technological evolution
and the needs of man within the same
settlement
ACCORDING TO DOXIADIS
In order to create the cities of
the future, we need to
systematically develop a
science of human settlements.

8. CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS : -
• By Ekistics Units
• By Ekistics Elements
• By Ekistics Functions
• By Evolutionary Phases
• By Factors & Disciplines
C
L
A
S
S
I
F
I
C
A
T
I
O
N

9. EKISTICSUNITS
Minor shells
Micro Settlements
Meso Settlements
Macro Settlements
Man(Anthropos), room, house
Units smaller than, or as small as, the
traditional town where people used, do &
still do achieve interconnection by
walking (housegroup, small
neighbourhood);
Between traditional town &
conurbation within which one can
commute daily
Whose largest possible expression is
the ecumenopolis.
1. Ekistics Units

10. The figure on left are for
doxiadis' ideal future ekistic
units for the year 2100 at
which time he estimated (in
1968) that earth would achieve
zero population growth at a
population of 50,000,000,000
with human civilization being
powered by fusion energy.
EKISTIC UNITS: 15 LEVELS •
also called EKISTICS
LOGARITHMIC SCALE (ELS)
• Unit range from man to
Ecumenopolis

11. 2. Ekistics Elements

12. 3. Ekistics Functions
Maximization of Human
Potentials
in a certain area, man will select the
location which permits a maximum of
potential contact
Minimization of Human
Efforts
a minimum of effort, terms of energy,
time and cost Man selects the most
convenient routes
Optimization of Man’s
Protective Space
Optimization of Man’s
Relationship with environment

13. 4. Evolutionary Phases
Evolutionary
Phases
Macro Scale
nomadic,
agricultural,
urban, urban
industrial
Micro Scale
specific area at a
limited period of
time
Nomadic Agricultural Urban Urban Industrial

14. 5. By Factors & Discipline
• Economics
• Social Sciences
• Political sciences &
Administration
• Technical Disciplines
• Cultural Disciplines

15. Analysis
• To achieve this we must clarify what we mean by cities.
• If we have the wrong conception -- for example, that cities are “all like the City of
London, densely built, small, traditional central parts of urban areas, or like the city
of New York, multimillion people agglomerations with many skyscrapers”-- we
cannot go very far.
• In all these cases we fail, not because the cities of the future may not be like these
prototypes, but because we approach our subject with preconceived ideas about
numbers of people, physical size, buildings, and styles which are a major hindrance to
the conception of the cities of the future.
According to Doxiadis, the greatest
problem facing cities worldwide was
the problem of managing growth.
He proposed several solutions to leave
room for expansion of the city core.
SOME OF HIS PROPOSALS
INCLUDED:
• Limiting all buildings to three levels
or less, with permission to build
higher Separating automobile and
pedestrian traffic completely.
• Constructing cities as a "beehive" of
cells each no bigger than 2 by 2
kilometers, the maximum
comfortable distance for pedestrians.

16. • Islamabad, the new Capital of
Pakistan.
• Planned by Constantinos A. Doxiadis
and Doxiadis Associates in the late
1950s.
• Is now a fast-growing city of about
1.5 million inhabitants.
• Forming, together with the adjacent
old city of Rawalpindi and a
National Park, a Metropolitan Area
(Greater Islamabad/Rawalpindi
Area) of about 4.5 million
inhabitants.
• The greater area of the capital, the
metropolitan area, has been planned
for a future population of about
2,500,000 inhabitants within a
period of two generations
Islamabad – The Creation Of New Capital
Aerial View of Islamabad

17. Islamabad – Birth and Location
• Planned in the
period, 1959-63
on the basis of
“Ekistics”,
Doxiadis’
“Science of
human
settlements”.
• Islamabad is
being
developed fully
respecting the
“Doxiadis
Plan”.
• A new capital for Pakistan was necessary following the
independence of India in 1947 and the inevitable partition
into India and Pakistan.
• Various solutions were proposed for the location of the
new capital from 1947 to1959 when the final decision was
reached.
• In February 1959, the government decided to investigate
the problem in a more thorough way. A commission and
nine sub-committees were formed .
• In March 1959, C.A. Doxiadis, proposed a site he visited
in the summer of 1959, which was finally approved.
• The approved site is located at the foot of the Margala
hills in northern Pakistan between the historical cities of
Lahore and Peshawar, west of the Idaspis (now Jhelum)
river where Alexander the Great defeated king Poros

18. Islamabad – The hierarchical concept in
communities, land uses and transportation system
• Islamabad is planned
according to a hierarchical
system of communities of
various classes.
• These communities are
properly served by a major
transportation system
developed within wide
corridors of a grid-iron
configuration, surrounding
and defining the higher class
communities.
• Local and collector low speed
roads, wide sidewalks,
pedestrian roads and bicycles
lanes within the lower class
“human communities”
provide access to the major
transportation system.
Schematic representation of the hierarchical pattern of
communities and transportation

19. Islamabad – The master plan and the dynametropolis concept
• The Islamabad Metropolitan
Area is composed of
Islamabad, the old city of
Rawalpindi and the National
Park.
• The latter is a hilly area,
containing two large lakes,
the National Sports Centre,
the National University and
the National Research
Centre.
• Four major interurban roads delineate the above three major components
of the Metropolitan Area.
• The overall plan is based on the “dynametropolis” concept, giving the
possibility of continuous expansion with the least possible adverse effects
in traffic and, generally, in the functioning of the Metropolis.

20. Islamabad – The master plan and the dynametropolis concept

21. Islamabad – The master plan and the dynametropolis concept
Islamabad
Metropolitan
Area. The
concept of the
dynametropolis

22. Islamabad – The master plan and the dynametropolis concept
The backbone of the Islamabad
Metropolitan Area Master Plan
is formed by two highways :
1.Islamabad Highway and
2.Murree Highway,
the alignment of which was
dictated by the natural
landscape pattern .
Formation of the Metropolitan Area : The principal system of axes in the
metropolitan area of Islamabad defines three distinctive areas: a. the area of
Islamabad proper. b. the area of Rawalpindi, the center of which is the city of
Rawalpindi. c. the National Park area which will retain certain agricultural
functions for several years and where sites must be provided for a national sports
center, the national university, national research institute, etc.

23. Islamabad – The master plan and the dynametropolis concept
• Islamabad will be the
capital of the nation and
will serve mainly
administrative and
cultural functions.
• Rawalpindi will remain
the regional center serving
industrial and commercial
functions.
• 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

24. Islamabad – The present situation
• The Metropolitan Area of
Islamabad has today a total
population of some 4.5 million
inhabitants, 1.5 million in
Islamabad and 3.0 million in
Rawalpindi.
• It is no more isolated from the
business and commercial activities.
• The increasing economic activities
have given birth to hugh rise
building. Residential apartments,
housing schemes, educational
institutions, industrial units and
new markets.
• Islamabad is a unique example of
a large new city “Planned for the
future and built for the present”.
Fully respecting the long term
planning.

25. Aspra Spitia
• Aspra Spitia is a small settlement
planned by Doxiadis Associates
for the company "Aluminion de
Grece" to house industrial
workers and personnel employed
at its nearby aluminum plant.
• Was designed for a projected
population of 5,000.
• The program proposed the
construction of a total of 1,100
dwellings, including one and
two-storey houses ,bachelor
apartments, stores and shops, a
customs house ,a school and
recreational and other facilities.

26. • Doxiadis Associates carried out not only the pure planning work (general
plan and layout plans for residential communities and central areas), but also
the study of the house types and buildings, the design of the infrastructure
(water and electricity supply, sewer and storm water networks), the
compilation of the tender documents and the supervision of the
implementation.
• The project was assigned in 1961.
• The L-shaped site (the short leg of which is bordered by the sea, while the
long one is flanked by two hills)
• Many visitors to Aspra Spitia affirm that this small settlement possesses the
special urban feeling characteristic of Greek cities of the past - a feeling
induced by a town in which cohesion does not abolish individuality, privacy
in interior yards does not conflict with social togetherness in the street or
square, and the physical scale and treatment express the hierarchy of values
in urban living.
Aspra Spitia

27. Other Works
• Authored books, studies, and reports including
those regarding the growth potential of the Great
Lakes Megalopolis.
• His company Doxiadis Associates was
implementing large projects in housing, urban and
regional development in more than 40 countries.
• He prepared Master Plan of the Yellow Line
Expressway in Rio de Janeiro, early 1960s.
• He Redeveloped plan for the Philadelphia
neighborhood of Eastwick.
• He also designed University Of Lahore.
• He wrote many journals

28. Books and Journals
• Dynapolis The City Of The Future (1960)[6]
• Doxiadis, Constantinos A. (1966). Emergence
and Growth of an Urban Region: The
Developing Urban Detroit Area. Detroit:
Detroit Edison.
• Doxiadis, Constantinos A. (1966). Urban
Renewal and the Future of the American City.
Chicago: Public Administration Service.
• Doxiadis, Constantinos A. (1968). Ekistics: An
Introduction to the Science of Human
Settlements. New York: Oxford University
Press.
• Doxiadis, Constantinos A.
(1974). Anthropopolis: City for Human
Development. New York: W.W. Norton.
• Doxiadis, Constantinos A.; Papaioannou, J.G.
(1974). Ecumenopolis: The Inevitable City of
the Future. Athens: Athens Center of Ekistics.
• Doxiadis, Constantinos A. (1975). Building
Entopia. Athens: Athens Publishing Center.
• Doxiadis, Constantinos A. (1976). Action for
Human Settlements. New York: W.W. Norton.
• Doxiadis, Constantinos A.
(1965). "On Linear
Cities" (PDF). Town Planning
Review. 36 (1):
1. doi:10.3828/tpr.36.1.f41483
03n72753nm.
• Doxiadis, Constantinos A.
(1967). "Islamabad, the
creation of a new
capital". Town Planning
Review. 38 (1):
35. doi:10.3828/tpr.38.1.7073
3287173p06k8.
• Doxiadis, Constantinos A.
(1968). "Man's Movement and
His City". Science. 162 (3851):
326–
334. doi:10.1126/science.162.3
851.326.

29. Bibliography
• https://www.witpress.com/Secure/elibrary/pap
ers/SDP09/SDP09008FU1.pdf
• https://www.doxiadis.org/Downloads/aspra_sp
itia.pdf
• Book – Architecture in Transition.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinos_Ap
ostolou_Doxiadis
• https://www.doxiadis.org/

30. Thank You!
We should never forget that values of the past are first
overlooked when a change is necessary, but later they are
understood and re-established.