ABSTRACT:

Lahore has a rich history of performative, diverse and inclusive public spaces with multiple
overlapping territories. Places like the walled city, despite being a gated community, are diverse
and inclusive of intricate cultural, economic, political and social activities. These spaces are
temporal and flexible where spatial structures are manipulated according to events and need of
the users. This makes spaces performative, allowing multiple possibilities for social
interaction.in different scenarios in the same place, where distinct social groups create unique
spaces on the basis of economy, identity and social values.

Public institutions related to policy making in present scenario are an example of separation of
territories and controlled space which eliminate diversity and presence of public in policy and
decision making process. These exclusive spaces create segregation in culture and social
identities of a society and decrease the possibilities of chance encounter between authority and
public.

Having an Ideological narrative and its physical manifestation in space is essential for any model
of governance to work and operate successfully. A socially inclusive ideology of governance
considers its citizens to be performers; operating according to their own narratives and
occupying temporal roles acted out in physical space.

Understanding how a manifestation of public spaces occurs, as a place of cultural identities and
expressions under a government authority, allows one an insight into the socio-cultural and
political relationship between the government and its people.

This public domain can be divided into formal and informal spaces on the basis of political
control. Spatial manifestation mostly represents entities that do not fulfill the needs of the places
living patterns which act symbolically rather than being performed.