One of the key issues in capital planning is to construct the nation’s collective identity. The planning usually aims to reflect the nation’s history and cultural origin, and also embodies the nation’s imagination of future and development. In the 1980s, the Malaysian government proposed to move governmental ministries and offices to a newly planned administrative capital called Putrajaya, located at the Selangor state near Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Cyberjaya, with a total area of 4930 hectares. At the mean time, Kuala Lumpur still remains to be the official capital with its unique historical and cultural background. Being the main economic entity in the Southeast Asia, Malaysian government intended to build Putrajaya as the model city to represent the country’s progressive development and modernization. Combining the planning concepts of “Garden City”, “Intelligent City” and Muslim’s values, Putrajaya aims to build a modern city in showing a “progressive Muslim” identity. Most of the primary buildings in Putrajaya were designed with strong Islamic and Middle East architectural language, with fascinating Central Asia domes, arches, and Islamic motifs. The construction of Putrajaya represents the Malaysian government’s ambition in projecting a modern Islamic identity, which could be considered as a part of the country’s de-colonization struggles. This thesis provides a brief view on the development of Malaysian architecture and urbanism, and gives critical attention on the construction of Putrajaya and Malaysian national identity in a postcolonial context.
