Transnational Global Infrastructure Spaces and Their Impact on Historical Places: Resistance, Negotiation and Alternatives in the Case of Gwadar

Global infrastructure spaces, known as variegated types of free zones, such as ports, luxury gated communities and more, are spaces that function as dynamic crossroads and global trade platforms. The development of infras- tructure spaces has endured incremental disruption while transnational activities were met with local resistance. This is clearly seen in the case is Gwadar, a small fishing town of prime location, which is a feature for transna- tional global infrastructure spaces. The development started from 2003, lasted until 2008, and was then resumed as part of expansion plans under the umbrella of the China Belt and Road Initiative starting 2014 to the present. The impact of the initial phase of developments has resulted in a disintegration of the socio-economic situation and daily lives of locals. The associated resettlement plan induced a fear of displacement and the negligence of the local authorities has caused the abandonment and eventual deterioration of historical places within. Citizens of the town, in hopes of protecting their surroundings and identity, met the development with resistance. Historical places also conveyed resistance by self-regenerating and maintaining their socio dynamics. Due to previous unsuccessful planning attempts, the Chinese architects and planners adopted an alternative strategy under the BRI framework. The strategy was aimed at negotiating the development process with the public in hopes of legitimizing the preservation of historical places and designing new infrastructure that rather emulated local architectural identity. This paper highlights the resistance in discourse as well as efforts exerted to sustain the identities of these places. This is achieved by using temporality, sensory experience and mapping out the sensations and subjective response of the users of newly constructed architecture, specifically infrastructure spaces. The research concludes that the state-run dominant policies are not always successful and negotiations with alternative strategies could help miti- gate local resistance in transnational developments.