Movement, Flow, + Materiality At Shahi Qila: Mughal Grandeur as Public Interiority

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-29-2024

Comments

This article is the author's final published version in Public Interiority, Chapter 21, September 2024.

The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003493501-24.

Copyright © 2025 selection and editorial matter, Liz Teston; individual chapters, the contributors

Abstract

Scholars have studied aspects of public interiority, including appropriation of space materiality and geometry, flow and movement, sociability, and human interaction. In urban interiors, walkways, and connectors can be designed as social hubs, with the flow and movement of its users resulting in spontaneous encounters. Connections to the cityscape are made via public transportation, thus blurring the divide between interiors, architecture, and urbanism. In my visual essay, I will show how theories of public interiority were exemplified in Mughal interiors and architectural spaces using Lahore’s Shahi Qila complex as my space of study. Public interiority started gaining recognition recently, but I will show how the subcontinent's sixteenth–seventeenth-century Mughal buildings achieved many of the concepts discussed by recent theorists. While Shahi Qila was enclosed with high walls, an interior environment within the vast space with its own streets was created. The strategic placement of outdoor spaces creates flow and movement within the complex, with materials defining the space. The red stone of pavements and the podiums creates a sense of continuity of space and its function, blurring the fine line between the interior and exterior. Connections to a performance stage, central to the complex, act as a space for appropriation where the users meet for impromptu meetings, performances, or meandering. Shahi Qila’s geometry, volume, and dematerialization of space bring both an urban scale and intimacy. The form of the space greatly influences the movement and flow of people, while the materials evoke feelings of intimacy, exteriority, and belonging.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Language

English

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