CHANDIGARH

EARLY PLANNING SCENARIO

After the partition of India, Pakistan became the capital of West Punjab and the search was on for the new capital of
East Punjab.Various locations were identified and discarded for shortage of water, poor accessibility and defense
vulnerability

SITE SPECIFICATIONS / POTENTIALS

• Site located in Sub-mountainous region
• 260Kms North of Delhi
• Central Location to the State
• Proximity to National Capital
• Plentiful water and Natural drainage
• Shivalik Hills as Background
• Had a great potential for Imaginative Landscape and offered magnificient view

SITE – DETAILS
• Chandigarh owes its name to Goddess Chandi
• Boldest experiment in Indian Context
• Site has mainly farmlands
• Mango groves and has 24 villages
• Bound by two Seasonal rivulets – Patiali ki rao and Sukhna Choe which flow North-west and South-east
• Lies on Longitude 76Degrees E and Latitude 20 Degrees N.
• Altitude of 304.8 Mts to 365.76 M above Sea Level
• Extreme Temperature

EARLY TEAM OF ARCHITECTS

• Albert Mayer of ‘Meyer, Whittlesey and Glass’ was invited to design the capital.
• Other experts were engaged for planning city’s economics and transportation, utilities and road and site
engineering and landscape.
• Matthew Nowicki, Polish architect, was also invited to colloborate.
• First plan prepared in 1949.
• Nowicki died in plane crash and a new team was recruited in 1950.
• Le corbusier, Jean, Fry and Jane Drew were selected

DESIGN FEATURES
Mayer and Nowicki’s Plan
Mayer and Nowicki prepared a plan for 500,000 People
Based on Low- Density Neighborhood concept
Roads were slightly curved
Capitol complex at the Northern end
City center at the center
Industrial sector at east
Two natural valleys on either side proposed as parkways
Unit of housing is superblock.
Each superblock measures 500m X 1000m
Three blocks comprises a superblock
Each individual block will comprise of housing, schools, shopping centers and other amenities
Three types of housing units – LIG, MIG, HIG planned around green space.

Nowicki’s scheme
Nowicki conceived another schematic plan of his own.
Derived from the organic form of a leaf
Stem of leaf compared with a commercial axis
Stem cuts through the center of the city
Traffic arteries will branch out from stem

PLANNING OF CHANDIGARH - LE CORBUSIER

Chandigarh is one of the most significant urban planning experiments of the 20th century. It is the only one of the
numerous urban planning schemes of Le Corbusier, the famous French architect-planner, to have actually been
executed It is also the site of some of his greatest architectural creations. The city has had far-reaching impact,
ushering in a modern idiom of architecture and city planning all over India and has become a symbol of planned
urbanism. It is as famous for its landscaping as for its architectural ambience. Most of the buildings are in pure,
cubical form, geometrically subdivided with emphasis on proportion, scale and detail.

Le Corbusier summed up his work on the city in an "edict", quoting the following:

EDICT OF CHANDIGARH

The object of this edict is to enlighten the present and future citizens of Chandigarh about the basic concepts of
planning of the city so that they become its guardians and save it from whims of individuals. This edict sets out
the following basic ideas underlying the planning of the city.

1. HUMAN SCALE:
The city of Chandigarh is planned to human scale. It puts us in touch with the infinite cosmos and nature. It
provides one with places and buildings for all human activities by which the citizens can live a full and
harmonious life. The radiance of nature and heart are within our reach.

2. SECTORS:
This city is composed of sectors. Each sector is 800 meters by 1,200 meters, enclosed by roads allocated to fast
mechanised transport and sealed to direct access from the houses.

Each sector caters to the daily needs of its inhabitants, which vary from 5,000 to 25,000 and has a green strip
oriented longitudinally stretching centrally along the sector in the direction of the mountains. The green strip
should stay uninterrupted and accommodate schools, sports fields, walks and recreational facilities for the sector.

Vehicular traffic is completely forbidden in the green strips, where tranquility shall reign and the curse of noise
shall not penetrate.

3. ROADS:
The roads of the city are classified into seven categories, known as the system of 7 Vs, as below: V-1 -- Fast roads
connecting Chandigarh to other towns; V-2 -- arterial roads; V-3 -- Fast vehicular roads; V-4 -- Meandering
shopping streets; V-5 -- Sector circulation roads; V-6 Access roads to houses; V-7 -- footpaths and cycle tracks
Buses will ply only on V-1, V-2, V-3 and V-4 roads. A wall shall seal the V-3 roads from the sectors.

4. AREAS OF SPECIAL ARCHITECTURAL INTEREST:

Certain areas of Chandigarh are of special architectural interest. Where harmonised and unified construction of
buildings is aimed at, absolute architectural and zoning control should remain operative.
Along V-2 central, dual carriageways Madhya Marg and Uttar Marg, where skyline, heights, character and
architecture of buildings as planned shall not be altered.
No building shall be constructed north of the Capitol Complex
Along V-2 beyond dual carriageway areas are reserved for cultural institutions only and shall never have any
residential buildings

5. CITY CENTRE:
The central plaza in Sector 17 was designed by Le Corbusier as "Pedestrian's Paradise". No vehicular traffic will
be permitted in the plaza.

6. INDUSTRIAL AREA:
Only such industry as is powered by electricity would be permitted in the Industrial Area, so that atmosphere is
 saved from pollution.

7. THE LAKE:
The Lake is a gift of the creators of Chandigarh to the citizens to be at one with the lake and its environments and
its tranquility shall be guaranteed by banning noises.

8. LANDSCAPING:
The landscaping of this city is based on careful observation of the vegetation of India. Selected ornamental trees,
shrubs and climbers have been planted according to colour schemes to beautify it. In future planting and
replacements, these principles must be kept in view. There should be no haphazard replacements, so that the
avenues retain their harmony and beauty.
The Leisure Valley, the Rajendra Park and other parks shall be developed as parks only and no building other than
already planned shall be permitted.

9. NO PERSONAL STATUES SHALL BE ERECTED:

The age of personal statues is gone. No personal statues shall be erected in the city or parks of Chandigarh. The
city is planned to breathe the new sublimated spirit of art. Commemoration of persons shall be confined to
suitably placed bronze plaques.

10. TRUTHFULNESS OF BUILDING MATERIALS TO BE MAINTAINED:

The truthfulness of materials of constructions, concrete, bricks and stone, shall be maintained in all buildings
constructed or to be constructed..

BACKGROUND
The Four Functions
(CIAM, Charter of Athens)

The force of this Charter lies in

1. giving the first place to the dwellings: the environment of living -- the family under the rule of '24 solar
hours'.
2. The second place is given to working, which is the daily act of human obligation.
3. The third is the culture of body on one hand and an intellectual leisure on the other.
4. When all these goals have received their definitive containers, it is possible to give to each of them a
respective rightful place and at this moment can interfere the problem of realizing the contacts: that is
'circulation'.

THE BIOLOGICAL ANALOGY - CONCEPT

 Le Corbusier liked to compare the city he planned to a biological entity: the head was the Capitol, the City
Centre was the heart and work areas of the institutional area and the university were limbs.
 Aside from the Leisure Valley traversing almost the entire city, parks extended lengthwise through each sector
to enable every resident to lift their eyes to the changing panorama of hills and sky.
 Le Corbusier identified four basic functions of a city: living, working, circulation and care of the body and
spirit.
 Each sector was provided with its own shopping and community facilities, schools and places of worship.
 "Circulation" was of great importance to Le Corbusier and determined the other three basic functions.
 By creating a hierarchy of roads, Le Corbusier sought to make every place in the city swiftly and easily
accessible and at the same time ensure tranquility and safety of living spaces.
If "circulation" was the dominant function, then of all "bodily elements", it was the "head" -- that is the Capitol --
that most completely engaged the master architect's interest. Le Corbusier always looked for a chance to make a
dramatic statement: in the context of Chandigarh, that was the Capitol -- in this, the priorities of the Indian
government and Le Corbusier's natural inclination converged

BASIC PLANNING COMPONENTS – MASTER PLAN

  Le Corbusier's plan was based on the gridiron defined by a system of seven types of roads, which Le
Corbusier called the 7 Vs (from the French word 'voie') and their expected functions around and within the
neighbourhood.
 The neighbourhood itself is surrounded by the fast-traffic road called V3 intersecting at the junctions of the
neighbourhood unit called sector with a dimension of 800 meters by 1200 meters.
 The dimensions of the sector and its creation are best explained in Le Corbusier's own words: "Its
dimensions are an outcome of studies made between 1929 and 1949 of the Spanish 'Cuadra' of 100 to 110
meters. A useful reclassification of the (Cuadras) led me to adopt a ratio of harmonious dimensions and
productive combinations: seven to eight 'cuadras' on one side, ten to twelve 'cuadras' on the other, that is
to say 800 meters by 1200 meters." And this was the "Sector" issued from an ancestral and valid geometry
established in the past on the stride of a man, an ox or a horse, but now adopted to mechanical speeds...
 The entrance of cars into the sectors of 800 meters by 1200m, which are exclusively reserved to family life,
can take place on four points only; in the middle of the 1200 m. in the middle of the 800 meters. All stoppage
of circulation shall be prohibited at the four circuses, at the angles of the Sectors.
 The bus stops are provided each time at 200 meters from the circus so as to serve the four pedestrian
entrances into a sector.
 Thus, the transit traffic takes place out of the sectors: the sectors being surrounded by four wall-bound car
roads without openings (the V3s). And this (a novelty in town-planning and decisive) was applied at
Chandigarh: no house (or building) door opens on the thoroughfare of rapid traffic.

CIRCULATION – TRANSPORTATION NETWORK

 Le Corbusier's traffic system followed Mayer's lines but was more elaborate; he called it Les Sept Voies de
Circulation, or Seven Vs.
 The rationale of his planning was the motor car. "From his early studies in urbanism, Le Corbusier had
identified the motor car as the central factor of modern town planning. His initial, primarily aesthetic, quasi-
Futurist response to the motor car and to rapid movement in the cities had, by 1950, metamorphosed into a
theoretical solution to the problems of modern traffic -- a graded system of circulation, from crossing
continents to walking to the front door.
 [As Le Corbusier put it] 'The 7 Vs act in the town plan as the bloodstream, the lymph system and the
respiratory system act in biology. These systems are quite rational, they are different from each other, there is
no confusion between them, yet they are in harmony.
 The 7Vs are no longer the sinister instruments of death, but become an organised hierarchy of roads which
can bring modern traffic circulation under control.
 The 7Vs establishes a hierarchy of traffic circulation ranging from : arterial roads (V1), major
boulevards (V2) sector definers (V3), shopping streets (V4), neighbourhood streets (V5), access lanes
(V6) and pedestrian paths and cycle tracks (V7s and V8s).
 The entrance of cars into the sectors, which are exclusively reserved to family life, can take place on four
points only; in the middle of the 1,200 meters; in the middle of the 800 meters.
 All stoppage of circulation shall be prohibited at the four circuses, at the angles of the sectors.
 The bus stops are provided each time at 200 meters from the circus so as to served the four pedestrian
entrances into a sector. Thus the transit traffic takes place out of the sectors; the sectors being surrounded by
four wall-bound car roads without openings (the V3s).

BUILDINGS
A) THE CAPITOL

 The Capitol is Le Corbusier's focus : he began to sketch the designs for the Capitol buildings during his first
visit itself, in early 1951.
 Like the Acropolis, which Le Corbusier loved, the complex stands aloof and dominates the city.

 These geometrical concrete buildings are intended to embody the essential spirit of the new city; the size and
solidity of the structures denote power -- the power of the people in a democratic state.
 Le Corbusier devoted great attention to the placement of the various buildings and other elements to avoid a
static balance of rigid geometry but at the same time preserve the alignment along a crossed axis and give the
whole a subtle visual cohesion.
The approach to the Capitol is through the vast expanse of a part pastoral land part consciously landscaped
plain ending at the base of the hills.

 The V2 stately avenue called Jan Marg leads to this complex as a culminating focal point from the rest of the
city.

 In contrast to the panoramic Shivalik hills that form the most picturesque backdrop for the Capitol -- the small
artificial hillocks planned by Le Corbusier play a delightful visual game of hiding and revealing the edifices
from the rest of the city.

 The vantage point for observing this designed visual drama is from the Leisure Valley -- a central linear
green belt.

 In Le Corbusier's original concept, the Capitol was to consist of the edifices consisting of i) Secretariat; ii)
Assembly, iii) High Court; and iv) Governor's Palace.

 Besides these main buildings there were also to be a number of monuments based on Corbusier's personal
philosophy -- to adorn the piazzas and the open spaces between the edifices.

 However, the proposed Governor's Palace was later changed to a more democratic institution called the
Museum of Knowledge. Although all other structures of the Capitol have been built -- sadly the pivotal
structure of the Museum of Knowledge has still not been built, leaving Le Corbusier's great masterpiece
somewhat like an unfinished symphony.

B) THE SECRETARIAT

The first conspicuous building to come into view is the Secretariat -- the largest of all from the buildings in the
complex (254 meters by 42 meters).

 Positioned at a sharp right angle to the mountain range it is designed as a vast linear slab-like structure -- a
workplace for 4000 people.
 An endless rhythm of balconies and louvre on its linear facades punctuated in a subtle way by a deliberately
asymmetrical composition of brise-soleil (a sun shading device), evolved by Le Corbusier in one of his earlier
studies and conceptual design of a skyscraper in Algiers in 1938.

 While a repetitive brise-soleil clads the five bays of the linear facade, the sixth bay, which contains the
double-height rooms of the ministers has an asymmetrical pattern.

 It's façade, besides the rhythmic brise-soleil, is also sculpturally punctuated by the protruding masses of
angled ramps and stairways.

 The roofline has a playful composition of a restaurant block, a ramp and a terraced garden, to break the
endless linearity.

 Inside, each floor is organised as a long central corridor -- perhaps a very monotonous space visually-- with
offices on both sides. The windows on the exterior are in the form of fixed floor to ceiling undulatory glazings
and small aerators.

C) THE ASSEMBLY
Close to the huge sunken parking area in front of the Secretariat is located the most sculptural and eye-catching of
all the geometrical forms of the Capitol the Assembly.
When Le Corbusier first arrived in Delhi, he saw the old astronomical observatory called Jantar Mantar, built by
Maharaja Jai Singh. Reacting to its structures Le Corbusier recorded, “They point the way; bind men to the
cosmos... the precise adaptation of forms and organisms to sun, rain air etc." The essence of these forms took
seed in Le Corbusier's imagination and later when he began sketching for the Assembly -- they were manifested in
his concepts. All the initial sketches incorporated some form or the other of a tower atop a cuboid building.

 But it was only on his fifth trip to India in May/June 1953 that his vision of the Assembly got concretized.
Flying over Ahmedabad, he noticed the cooling towers of a power station. It was the shape he had been
looking for and accordingly a great hyperbolic drum, 39 meters in both diameter and height was incorporated
in the plan along with a pyramidal skylight connected to the drum by a small bridge.
 Inside, the legislative chambers are dramatically illumined with shafts of light.

 The building has two entrances: one at the basement level for everyday use and the other from the piazza
level for ceremonial occasions through a massive entrance, 7.60 meters high and 7.60 meters broad, whose
enameled door (a gift to Punjab from France) translates a cubist mural painted by Le Corbusier himself. The
door and many other elements of the Capitol demonstrate Le Corbusier's predilection for melding art and
architecture.

 The large cuboid base of the hyperbolic drum contains the independent volumes of the upper and the lower
chambers -- now divided between the Punjab and Haryana states as their respective legislative chambers.

 The outer box acts like a container of two auditorium-like spaces used by the two Legislative Assemblies. An
irregular space between the two chambers is a large lobby with sculptural lights designed by Le Corbusier.
The external facades of the cuboid base has rhythmic pattern of the brise-soleil with its play of light and
shadow on three sides. And on the fourth opening towards the large piazza facing the High Court is a huge
trough supported on massive pylons.

D) THE HIGH COURT

 The High Court is a linear block with the main façade toward the piazza.

 It has a rhythmic arcade created by a parasol-like roof, which shades the entire building.

 Keeping in view the special dignity of the judges, Le Corbusier created a special entrance for them through a
high portico resting on three giant pylons painted in bright colours. Very much in the tradition of the Buland
Darwaza of Fatehpur-Sikri, this grand entrance with its awesome scale, is intended to manifest the Majesty of
the Law to all who enter.

 Juxtaposed between the main courtroom of the Chief Justice and eight smaller courts, is a great entrance hall.
Its scale -- especially the height -- is experienced most intensely while walking up the ramp.

 The symbolism of providing an "umbrella of shelter" of law to the ordinary citizen is most vividly manifested
here.

 The continuity of the concrete piazza running into this space establishes a unique site and structural unity of
the structure with the ground plane.

 The massive concrete pylons representing again the "Majesty of Law" are painted in bright primary colours
and visually punctuate the otherwise rhythmic facade of the High Court.

 The rear side of this ceremonial entrance for the judges is a working entrance and a large car park at a sunken
level.
  The massive piers and the blank end walls have interesting cut-outs and niches, to establish a playful
connection with the human scale.

 Each courtroom was provided with an independent entrance from the piazza -- and the gracefully curving
overarching profile of the brise-soleil screen was intended to provide the symbolic protection. However, this
"metaphor" of protection proved highly non-functional against intense summer heat and the monsoon rains --
thus requiring a single-storeyed continuous verandah running in front of them as a later addition.

 Space for archives and library also proved insufficient, even after the open terraces of the library had been
taken over, so Le Corbusier agreed to design an unobtrusive, expandable annex to the north.

 Colourful tapestries, one to each courtroom, cover the entire rear wall -- 12 metres square in the main
courtroom and 8 metres square for the smaller courtrooms.

 A number of symbols that encapsulated Le Corbusier's view of man, earth, nature, the emblems of India and
the scales of justice were depicted in abstract, geometric patches. They were also required for acoustical
reasons. These tapestry designs referred to the architectural plan, in particular Le Corbusier's exaltation of the
right angle as basic element of architecture, and of order generally. The designs are based on Le Corbusier's
Modular, which he used to organise the entire Capitol Complex and give dimensions to all its buildings.

He described the Modular as "a modest servant offered by mathematics to people desirous of harmony, a
universal tool for all kinds of fabrications destined to be sent to all parts of the world. Furthermore, it solves by
the decimal system the inextricable manipulation of the inch-foot system, an ancestral and totally respectable
measure. The Modular is based on human height ... it places man at the centre of the drama, its solar plexus
being the key to the three measures, which express the occupation of space by its members."

E) MONUMENTS

One day in 1952 when the first drawings were being made, Jane Drew casually suggested to Le Corbusier: "Why
don't you set between the edifices of the Capitol some of the signs that you sometimes evoke and which symbolise
your strongest preoccupations?" Le Corbusier accepted the suggestion and so it was that besides the three major
buildings of the Capitol Complex, Le Corbusier planned a number of monuments along the main piazza to
activate and embellish its linear perspective.

i) THE OPEN HAND

The most significant of these is the Open Hand. Conspicuous by its scale, this giant hand in metal sheet rises
26meters from a sunken trench and rotates freely in the wind from a high concrete pedestal, conveying the
symbolic message: "Open to give, Open to receive". It is the official emblem of the city.

Ii) TOWER OF SHADOWS

Le Corbusier's idea of the "24 Solar Hours" provides the impetus for this monument. This is an interesting study
of the movement of the sun. Here he explored various shading devices and demonstrated "that one can control the
sun on the four cardinal points of an edifice and that one can play with it even in a torrid country and obtain
lower temperatures."

iii) MARTYRS' MEMORIAL

A memorial to the martyrs of the Punjab partition consists of an enclosure -- where symbolic sculptures are to be
placed.

.LANDSCAPE
 Three spaces were identified for special plantation: the roadsides, spaces around important buildings,
parks and special features such as Sukhna Lake.
 While evolving the iron grid layout of the city, Le Corbusier incorporated an integrated park system of
continuous green belts from one end of the city to the other, allowing an unobstructed view of the mountains.

 For the V2 avenue,on the one hand, it seems useful to demarcate the highway by a border of high trees
and on the other hand to unite with one glance the entire width of the avenue."

 The conspicuous non-flowering trees are along V3 roadsides. These trees, noted for their vast, thick
spreading canopies form great vaulting shelters

 "To specialise the character, each V-4 will be planted with trees having different colour, or of a different
species. For example one V-4 will be yellow, one V-4 will be red, one V-4 will be blue."

 Pedestrian paths and cycle-tracks were to be laid out through these irregularly shaped linear parks to allow a
person to travel the entire length of the city under a canopy of green.

 The valley of a seasonal rivulet that ran through the city site for about 8 kilometers with a depth of about 6
meters and a width extending to a maximum of 300 meters, was imaginatively made use of.

 A series of special gardens transformed the existing eroded area into what is now called the Leisure Valley
PLANNING OF BHUBANESHWAR – OTTO KOENIGSBERGER

 Bhubaneshwar – capital of Orissa is located 48km from the sea.

 Between Mahanadhi Delta and gently undulating woodland
 Foundation laid by Jawaharlal Nehru on April 13, 1948
 The city was designed for 40,000 people
 Original idea by Arturo Soria Y Mata - Spanish planner
 Otto Koenigsberger – Main designer

SITE SPECIFICATION

• Selected in Feb 1948 for a new capital

• Characterized by salient features like an air field, a railway line
• Original town of Bhubaneswar had 12,000 population.
• A Major Shaivite center of India with 300 Temples
• Important temple – Lingaraja Temple
• Main Road to the Site linked with NH from Chennai to Calcutta towards north
• The site has road links to Cuttack and Puri

KEY FACTORS

Based on Nehru’s policies on Social Agenda

• Neither caste nor socio-economic segregation to exist
• Gender equality to be stressed
• Education to be Stressed
• Climate and context to be emphasized
• Idea of reducing differences between rich and poor

DESIGN FEATURES

• City laid out in a linear fashion.

• Central artery forming the main spine
• Neighborhood units are attached to main spine
• Each Neighborhood unit accommodates major amenities of life – schools, clinics, shopping centers, libraries,
etc.,
• Easy walking distance even for a child.
• Fairly high density unit can hold up to 5000 to 6000 people
• Each unit planned around educational & recreational area.
• Shopping center for every two units.
• Central shopping district near railway station.
• Every second housing site was allocated for ‘non-officials’.
• Standard amenities provided for both ‘old’ & ‘new’ towns
MASTER PLAN - BHUBANESHWAR
LOCATION - BHUBANESHWAR