When Raj was divided into India and Pakistan capital of Punjab province – Lahore – ended up in Pakistan. First Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru saw it as a oppurtunity to built a city „unfettered by the traditions of the past, a symbol of the nation's faith in the future“. Le Corbusier built it for him.
Le Corbusier was not the first employed architect and urban planner though. The work was started by an American duo Matthew Nowicky and Albert Mayer. It was them who came with a concept of the Superblock. The space to be occupied by the city was divided into neat and sort of regular, although not perpendicular grid. Chandighar was supposed to be curving grid of streets spreading into a fan with variable size of a Superblock. Then Nowicky died in a plane crash in Egypt and Mayer did not feel up to the task on his own. Le Corbusier was invited.
He straightened the grid, renamed the Superblock to Sector. 1200 by 800 meters each. Strictly perpendicular. In the first phase there were 29 of these built, numbered 1–30 (there is no Sector 13). Next the Sectors 31–48 were added and quite recently halfsized Sectors 49–61 were finished.
Le Corbusier saw the city as a living organism. Capital Complex in the north represented head, shopping precint in Sector 17 heart, green spaces and parks lungs and road network circulatory systems. Streets were classified into seven grades according to their planned function. Some were to connect Chandighar connect with other cities (V-1), others meant to be meandering shopping streets (V-4) and yet other ones were planned as access roads to residential buildings (V-7). Le Corbusier then set rules which types of vehicles can use which roads and which are to be separated from the surrounding buildings by sound barriers. And it was not just a pointless intellectual exercise. Even today there are no gridlocks and the traffic flows freely even in rush hour and the residential areas are noise free.
Chandighar is the only big Le Corbusier's urban plan every realized. Anmd it is quite clear what he meant when he spoke about living in green. The result is much better than the twisted interpretation seen as grey concrete housing projects all over the world. The city works suprisingly well and has that fifties/sixties feel of naive optimism when people still believed in the bright future. Which mysteriously did not come. And we got Disco and grease and then eighties and cocaine instead.
The architecture is very 50s and 60s. Lots of concrete and Le Corbusier's trademark columns and facades that do not have to support the weight of the building. Independent roofs. Family houses and schools built of red brick occasionally painted white. Everything very perpendicular and cubic. (Most of the buildings were designed by Le Corbusier's cousin Pierre Jeanneret, English architects Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew and Indian team of nine: M. N. Sharma, A. Ar. Prabhawalkar, B. P. Mathur, Piloo Moody, U. E. Chowdhury, N. S. Lamba, J. L. Malhotra, J. S. Dethe a Aditya Prakash.) Parks and greenery and trees everywhere. It would be a wonderful place for walking even though the distances are huge. But in the Brave New World there was no place for walking as a mean of transport. Walk was to take place in parks as purely recreational activity. And so the pavements are missing.
Not only was the city planned and its construction supervised by Le Corbusier. He set guidelines for future development as well. So in the centre of each Sector should be an uninterrupted green belt, out of bounds to traffic, with no noise reaching it. In the industrial zone only electricity powered factories were permitted as they do not polute the air. Personal statues were banner as an anachronism. Extending the city to the north of Capital Complex was prohibited (what could grow out of a head…). Along the main drag – Himalaya Marg (V-2) exact model of building was prescribed. Areas designated for culture were not to be turned to residential ones under any circumstances. And more than fifty years later all of it is still strictly observed. Maybe because Chandighar's citizens are veryu proud of their city and are quick to remind you that it is the cleanest and greenest inm the country (very likely true).
And they have Rock Garden which is said to be the second most visited site in India. Second only to Taj Mahal.
Few pictures
Plaza at Sector 17.
Himalaya Marg, main artery of Chandighar.
Shopping street in Sector 17.
Shopping street in Sector 17.
Secondary school in Sector 16, designed by Le Corbusier's cousin, Pierre Jeanneret.
Back alley of shopping street in Sector 16.
Vila in Sector 18.
Detail of a family house in Sector 18.
Detail of a family house in Sector 22.
