|
CHANDIGARH CITY -
History
The Story of
Chandigarh
Chandigarh
is synonymous to a certain kind of architecture, along with planned
landscaping which is, not found
in other cities of India, and not amenable to being strait jacketed.
Here's the story of 'The City Beautiful' for you.
 The
Government of Punjab, initially approached American town planner
Albert Mayer who along with architect Mathew Nowicki became the key
planners for the new city. The master plan conceived by them had a
fan-shaped outline filling the site between the two seasonal
river-beds. Against the beautiful background of the Shivalik Hills
was located the capital complex, at the northern edge of the city.
The City Centre was sited in the middle, and two linear parklands
ran from the northeast to the southwest. The Mayer wanted to create
a self-sufficient city, restricted in size and surrounded by green
belts. Areas for business, industry and cultural activities were
clearly demarcated. In August 1950, his co-planner Nowicki died in a
plane crash and Mayer withdrew from the project.
This vision of Chandigarh, contained in the innumerable conceptual
maps on the drawing board together with notes and sketches had to be
translated into brick and mortar. Eminent architect and urban
theorist, Le Corbusier, was then selected to carry forward this
task. He chose to retain many of the seminal ideas of Mayer and
Nowicki, like the basic framework of the master plan and its
components; the Capital, City Centre, besides the University,
Industrial area, and linear parkland. Even the neighbourhood unit
was retained as conceived by the previous architects. However, the
curving outline of Mayer and Nowicki were redeisgned into a mesh of
rectangles, and the buildings were characterised by an 'honesty of
materials'. Exposed brick and boulder stone masonry in its rough form produced unfinished concrete surfaces, in geometrical
structures. This became the architecture form characteristic of
Chandigarh, set amidst landscaped gardens and parks.
The Master
Plan
Le
Corbusier saw the master plan of Chandigarh as analogous to a living
organism, with a clearly defined head (the Capital Complex, Sector
1), heart (the City Centre, Sector 17), lungs (the leisure valley,
innumerable open spaces and green sector), the intellect (the
cultural and educational institutions), the circulatory system (the
network of roads, the 7 Vs), and the viscera (the Industrial Area).
|
