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Medieval And Colonial Capital Cities Of DelhiJUSTIFICATION FOR INSCRIPTIONwhich was then further developed a few years later at New Delhi. The Hampstead Garden City experienceprompted Lutyens to adopt the concept of a garden city for the residential areas of the new administrative city ofNew Delhi.The clear, geometric layout of the town stems from Edwin Lutyens, and an examination of his various models ishelpful to recognize more clearly his intentions for the plan and its relation to contemporary town planning inother continents. Imperial Rome offered town planning and architectural models that imperial Britain wanted toappropriate. On the occasion of the World Exhibition in Rome in 1911, Lutyens designed and built an exhibitionhall for his country. More importantly, he became acquainted with the capital as a basic form for the seat ofgovernment and the Pantheon as the most sublime assembly space in history.Cities which most influenced the planning of New Delhi are perhaps Paris and Washington. In Paris, BaronHaussmann’s (1808‐91), grands boulevards and network of avenues was laid out on principles established by theEcole des Beaux Arts, with connections at ‘rond‐points’ (today’s traffic islands) which encouraged monumentalfocal architecture, such as the Arc de Triomphe. Justice is not done to the far‐sightedness of the alterations to theplan of Paris if they are regarded simply as a transfer of the radial avenues and streets from Versailles. Not onlywas the entire technical infrastructure – water, sewage, road transport, metro – raised to a technically exemplarystandard, but a new type of city was created whose essential features and elements were copied in manycountries around the world. The repeated emulation of this plan elevated Paris to the status of one of the mostbeautiful cities, and also as one of the most economically successful centres in the world.Lutyens visited the French capital several times around 1900s and commended the generosity of spirit of theboulevards in Paris. The Parisian example was clear to Edwin Lutyens when, in 1912, he and his colleagues in theDelhi Town Planning Committee worked out various new options for the British Viceroy of India to the town planfor a future Imperial Delhi. Lutyens was also aware of the restrictions in adopting one of the most successful citymodels of all times: in Paris the spending power of one of the richest nations in Europe was increasing. In ImperialDelhi on the other hand, the spending power of the British colonial government was so small by comparison, thatthere would be no shops, or dance‐halls and theatres lining the avenues, but a range of particularly large andquick growing native‐trees.Lutyens and his colleagues had such high consideration for the model of the Champs Elysees as an exemplary axisfor linking the palace, victory column and triumphal arch as indispensable to the plan – and incomparable in itssymbolic and formal perfection – that they did not shrink from building an imitation of the celebrated avenue inImperial Delhi. Both avenues – the Champs Elysees in Paris and the King’s Way in New Delhi – do justice to theirimperial status on their respective national holidays when their countries’ armed forces display the power and theglory of the homeland to the multitudes of curious onlookers. The axial vista of the Champs Elysees and the crossaxis from the River Seine to the Church of La Madeleine can be compared to what in Delhi was taken a notchhigher to give a grand sweep from the Viceroy’s House, past the Secretariats and the ‘Great Place’ square (VijayChowk) at the foot of the Raisina, along the Rajpath towards India Gate.Another key influence was the layout of the American capital Washington, created in 1789 by the French engineerPierre L’Enfant (1754‐1825). An examination of the town plan at Imperial Delhi with its hexagonal system of wideboulevards and the important historical or new buildings at the intersections inevitably recalls the similar plan ofthe American capital, Washington D.C.Following a convention of the American Institute of Architects, held in Washington in 1900, the planning of theFederal Capital was modified by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. The history of the founding ofWashington D.C. and the reasons behind its geometric ground plan were familiar to all those involved in thefounding of Imperial Delhi. It was a Freemasons’ city that embodied their concepts of geometry as beingillustrative of the notion of harmony in the universe. The town planners of Imperial Delhi, however, were not allFreemasons. Nevertheless, the Royal Family and London society as well were clearly influenced by Masonic ideals.While Lutyens himself did not visit Washington till 1925 it is believed that the exhibition hosted by the RoyalInstitute of British Architects at the International Town Planning Conference, showcased key examples from home31‐07‐2012 INTACH, Delhi Chapter 11