Le Corbusier with the collaboration of Pierre Jeanneret, Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, Chandigarh, India, 1950-1965. The Chandigarh Masterplan, a fusion of buildings and landscape signifying the bio-aesthetics advocated by Dr. M. S. Randhawa, 1951. © Wall model at the Chandigarh College of Architecture.
The Chandigarh Sector

Authors

  • Sangeeta Bagga Chandigarh College of Architecture

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52200/65.A.YB2MNCH1

Keywords:

Modern Movement, Modern architecture, Modern housing, Post-war housing, Welfare architecture, Mass housing, Indian modern architecture, Chandigarh, Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Maxwell Fry, Jane Drew, Landscape architecture

Abstract

The neighborhood unit (Sector) in Chandigarh was conceived as a self-sufficient, repeated element to create the matrix of the city along with the hierarchical circulation system defined by the 7Vs to disburse traffic in an orderly manner. This arrangement was interfaced with a designed landscape at the behest of Le Corbusier and Dr. M. S. Randhawa whose passion for bio-aesthetics realized a city where landscape and built forms created a patina of the most charming capital of the modern world. Seven decades later, the city’s flowering landscape and modernist architecture continues to make it one of the best neighborhoods in which to reside.

How to Cite

Bagga, S. (2021). The Chandigarh Sector. Docomomo Journal, (65), 104–107. https://doi.org/10.52200/65.A.YB2MNCH1

Published

2021-07-01

Issue

No. 65 (2021): Housing for All

Section

Documentation Issues

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Plaudit

Author Biography

Sangeeta Bagga, Chandigarh College of Architecture

(Chandigarh, India). Architect and PhD, she takes a keen interest in the ecological, social and conservation concerns of Chandigarh. Professor at the Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA) since 1999, she became its first woman head in 2017. She has led the postgraduate studios focusing on the city’s sustainable cultural landscape, being professor of Urban Design, Theory of Design, and Architectural Design Studios. She is also involved alongside the management of the World Heritage Site Capitol Complex of the works of Le Corbusier and is a long-time Berkeley Prize committee member.

References

LANG, John, A Concise History of Modern Architecture in India, New Delhi, Permanent Black, 2002.

HENKET, Hubert Jan, HEYNEN, Hilde (eds.), Back from Utopia: The Challenge of the Modern Movement, Rotterdam, 010Publishers, 2002.

FRY, Maxwell, dREW, Jane, Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zone, London, Batsford, 1956.

RANDHAWA, M. S., Flowering Trees. India – The Land and The People, New Delhi, National Book Trust, 1965 [reprinted 1983].

BAKSHI, Inder Jit Singh (ed.), Chandigarh: Aesthetic Legislation: Documentation of Urban Controls in Chandigarh (1951-2001), Chandigarh, Chandigarh College of Architecture, 2002.

CASCIATO, Maristella, MooS, Stanislaus von, Twilight of the Plan: Chandigarh and Brasilia, Mendrisio, Mendrisio Academy Press, 2007.