Chandigarh: once the future city - Place

Architectural Review, The, March, 2003 by Jim Antoniou

Walking through the desolate spaces between the buildings, with their rough and worn surfaces, the Capitol conveys an uncomfortable impression of a living ruin, frozen since its inception. However, the interests of Le Corbusier as an artist and those of the citizens of Chandigarh in the end appear to be not the same. The impression conveyed is that he would have preferred that the inhabitants were grateful to him for enlarging their emotional knowledge of architecture, which to him was a constant source of wonder and vitality. One can speculate that if the Capitol area really expresses the State Government's aspirations, some attempt would have been made to complete and sympathetically add to the urban design. So far, this has not happened. Moreover, 50 years on, the Capitol is still not a place for the people to show civic pride. His ideas on cosmology and mysticism were cryptic and esoteric. Yet, for him, they were to be understood and accepted by everyone, without explanations.

Today, with the complexities and heavy technical demands on modern architecture, it would be impossible for one designer to take on such a colossal task on his own. He insisted in solving all building problems without expert advice. He was also fearful of any form of dialogue to avoid others influencing or compromising his ideas. Although Le Corbusier took courageous risks at all levels of design, neither the city, nor the buildings have been a practical success. He did not master the climate in terms of hot breezes, the monsoon and uninsulated concrete. Similarly, at city scale, the isolation of the routes and avenues, together with zoning regulations, do not encourage intense urban activity to take place. The city's own rigid character, lacking urbanity, is an image of a vast series of metropolitan hamlets.

In his book The City of Tomorrow (1937), Le Corbusier shows a vacant rectangle with the following words within it: 'Left blank for a work expressing modern feeling'. With his great concern for area design, there was the hope that Le Corbusier himself could have fulfilled the ambitions of such an urban space admirably within the Capitol of Chandigarh. Yet, like most of his exciting concepts that have influenced generations of architects, Chandigarh is important for what it could have been, rather than what it is today.

Jim Antonious, who wrote and illustrated this article on urban design, visited Chandigarh for several days as part of an extensive trip to India, sponsored by Cox and Kings, the travel agents. This article is part of an occasional series in AR by Jim Antoniou on international examples of urban design. Other examples include Historic Cairo, Egypt (March 1998); Cartagena, Colombia (October 1999); and The Forbidden City in Beijing, China (April 2001).