LE CORBUSIER’S CHANDIGARH — an Immersive experience
As a child, I grew up in the city amidst the trees and parks, roads and roundabouts, buildings and plazas, which at that point, formed a picture in the young mind of how a ‘city’ looks like. The fabric of the city got so much ingrained in me as a tiny resident that it took me a formal education in architecture to finally understand Chandigarh.
As I embarked on my journey of architecture student, my perspective for the city started altering. The roads on which I had spent formative years of my life cycling, started taking shape of the grid pattern. The color coordinated red and grey buildings came to be known as the brick and concrete facades. The tiny symmetrical government housing started looking beautiful to my eyes as I learned about the sun and shade from the Tower of Shadows.
I profoundly remember my first visit to the Capitol Complex, as an architecture student, when the monumental scale of the High Court piers had left me spellbound. And that was my first interaction, or rather rendezvous with the legendary architect Le Corbusier.
Whether it was the parabolic structure of the Punjab Assembly building, or the pyramid of the Haryana Assembly, geometric forms formed the basis of architectural design of the marvels of the city, specially in that era when the rest of India was busy adding ‘ornamental elements’ to the buildings. Similarly, the planning of ‘sectors’ and their arrangement was done so systematically in times when cities were defined as ‘organically originated settlements’ around water bodies.
The creative side of Le Corbusier can be seen in his furniture designs, high court room tapestries, murals on the gigantic door and elsewhere, sculptures like the ‘open hand monument’, that have greatly inspired me to believe that ‘design is interdisciplinary’. It flows from one form to another without any rigid walls of confinement.
Remembering Le Corbusier on his birth anniversary, I would like to appreciate the visionary architect who has planned the city with so much far-sightedness that its strong road network and drainage system could never let the city come to a standstill despite the changing weather patterns and the exponential rise of population over the years.
Some feel that it is the landscaped greens amidst the red and grey structures that are inviting to the young and old alike, while some feel that it is its strategic location at the foothills of Himalayas that manage to attract people from the whole of North India and also from other parts of the country. Then there are people like me who willingly, even after a decade of staying away in other cities in India and abroad move back here for the overall quality of life that the city has to offer to its people.
Years after its conception and creation, ‘Chandigarh’ stands tall with pride as even till date it holds the title of the most well designed city of India. Despite several efforts, the well thought of city planning could not be replicated anywhere in India, not fully even in adjoining parts of Haryana and Punjab that had a living model right in front of them. The credit also goes to the strict administration that has helped to keep the essence of the city intact.
To conclude, Chandigarh stands as the undefeated masterpiece of Le Corbusier which, like a shining star, has failed to fade over the years, and till date continues to provides its visitors and residents with an ‘immersive experience’ of design.