Putrajaya: Malaysia’s new federal administrative capital

In the early 1990s, the Malaysian government conceived of a new federal administrative capital built from a tabula rasa on former oil palm and rubber plantations called Putrajaya. It was designed to be the new home to all of Malaysia’s federal government ministries and national level civil servants, host all diplomatic activities for the country, and function as a potent symbol of the nation’s ambitious modernization agenda and of its new ‘progressive Muslim’ identity. As one of many new cities recently built as seats of power in Southeast Asia and the ‘global south’, Putrajaya is emblematic of the trend of former colonies to reject the colonial capital and to replace it with a city that symbolizes the state’s national ideology and aspirations. This article provides a brief overview of the history and development of Malaysian urbanism that set the stage for the creation of Putrajaya and critically examines its claims of being ‘green’. Particular attention is paid to how a national identity has been constructed through the design of the city.