PLANNING OF CHANDIGARHABOUT CHANDIGARH:

Chandigarh, the dream city of India's first Prime Minister, Sh. Jawahar Lal Nehru, was planned by the famous French architect Le Corbusier. Picturesquely located at the foothills of Shivaliks, it is known as one of the best experiments in urban planning and modern architecture in the twentieth century in India.

The city has a pre-historic past. The gently sloping plains on which modern Chandigarh exists, was in the ancient past, a wide lake ringed by a marsh. The fossil remains found at the site indicate a large variety of aquatic and amphibian life, which was supported by that environment. About 8000 years ago the area was also known to be a home to the Harappans.

CHANDIGARH ; SITEThe general ground level of the site ranges from 305 to 366 meters with a 1 per cent grade giving adequate drainage. To the northeast are the foothills of the Himalayas -- the Shivalik Range -- rising abruptly to about 1524 meters and a dramatic natural backdrop. One seasonal stream, the Patiali ki Rao, lies on the western side of the city and another, the Sukhna Choe, on the eastern side. A third, smaller seasonal stream flows through the very center of Chandigarh. The area along this stream bed has been turned into a series of public gardens called the Leisure Valley.

CITY MAP

CHANDIGARH ; PLAN

GENESIS OF THE CITY

The choice fell on Le Corbusier, an architect and urban theorist, many of whose ideas were at variance with those of Mayer and Nowicki. The other important members of his team were Pierre Jeanneret, Maxwell Fry, Jane Drew- and among the Indians notably U.E.Chowhury, N.S.Lamba, A.R.Prabhawalkar, Jeet Malhotra, B.P.Mathur and Aditya Prakash.

Although Le Corbusier made many radical changes in the Americans' master plan, incorporating his own architectural and city planning ideas, it is a tribute to Mayer and Nowicki's vision that he incorporated several of their seminal ideas.

For example, the basic framework of the master plan and its components - the Capitol , City Centre, university, industrial area, and a linear parkland - as conceived by Mayer and Nowicki were retained by Le Corbusier.

The restructured master plan almost covered the same site and the neighbourhood unit was retained as the main module of the plan.

The Superblock was replaced by now what is called the Sector covering an area of 91 hectares, approximately that of the three-block neighbourhood unit planned by Mayer.

The City Centre, the railway station and the industrial areas by and large retained their original locations. However, the Capitol , though still sited at the prime location of the north-eastern tip of the plan, was shifted slightly to the north-west.While the former preferred a naturalistic, curving street pattern without the rigidity of a sterile geometric grid -- the latter was adverse to "solidification of the accidental". For Le Corbusier the straight line was the logical connecting path between two points, and any "forced naturalness" was superfluous. Le Corbusier always looked at the city plan in terms of a single cohesive monumental composition , with major axes linking the focal points of the city. The emphasis on visual cohesion between the various city components was an essential feature of his somewhat rigid grid iron plan

BASIC PLANNING CONCEPTS

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.

THE BIOLOGICAL ANALOGY

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.

STATUTE OF THE LAND

Le Corbusier set out his principles in the now-famous Statute of the Land

I. Definition of use of Chandigarh : (i) Chandigarh is a city offering all amenities of life to the poorest of the poor of its citizens to

lead a dignified life. (ii) Chandigarh is a Government city with a precise goal and consequently a precise quality of

inhabitants.

II. The Four Functions (CIAM, Charter of Athens): The force of this Charter lies in giving the first place to the dwellings: the environment of

living , the family under the rule of '24 solar hours'. The second place is given to working, which is the daily act of human obligation. The third is the culture of body on one hand and an intellectual leisure on the other. 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'.

III: concerning With this line of conduct, the urbanism of Chandigarh emerged. The date the dwellings was an artificial one. The charter of 13 categories; the city arising is one of 2 1/2 storeys which has brought many appreciable factors but which is now placed before the pressure of the city's development, it is: 'What will be the future?’ :

Concerning working, Chandigarh being an administrative city, two centres have appeared: one Government: the Capitol Complex buildings and parks and its precise situation in the landscape. The second is the 'Town Hall', placed in the City Centre.

IV: Constituent elements occupying the ground of the city : 1. The Sectors 2. The 7Vs, which are 8 3. The resulting geography: concentration and dissemination (in the city and out of the city) 4. Indispensable fact, unacceptable facts (their biology) 5. Statute of the Land 6. Augmentation (appreciation) in the value of land by clever methods

The Sectors :

The contents of a sector range from 5,000 to 20,000 inhabitants (approx.).

Chandigarh has 30 sectors: each sector has its maintenance organisations, the food provisions, the schools (kindergarten and primary) the necessary artisans (repairs, etc) the daily leisure (movies etc) all traversing in the middle of each sector , it is the V-4.

The V-4 given the horizontal connection between the continuous sectors.

The sector is surrounded by high-speed roads with bus stops every 430 meters and giving the eight entrances in this social group.

The fundamental principle of the sector is that never a door will open on the surrounding V-3s: precisely the four surrounding V-3s must be separated from the sector by a blind wall all along.

In consequence, the sector will never receive transit buses or cars. However, the v-4 can accept the through passage of cars and buses but only at low speed.

Each sector will have a green properly oriented in the direction of the mountain, constituting a band vertically connecting a series of sectors. In these bands will be installed the diverse schools and the sports fields.

The 7 V’s

The V-1 is the road which is going through the continents, traversing rural areas and cities.

The V-2 takes immediately the succession of V-1 at the beginning of the city.

The V-3s are a new kind of roads devoted exclusively to vehicular traffic (especially fast traffic). These ways must be interrupted the least. They are surrounding the sectors as explained above.

The V-4 is the right place of the 24 hours life of a sector. It is a linear event and particularly in Chandigarh. It should be situated on the shadow side (which is the SW side).

The V-5s are roads which assure the internal distribution of traffic inside a sector.

The V-6s have to give access to the doors of the dwellings. V-5 and V-6 must never receive a transit traffic (bicycle, cars and buses).

The V-7 is situated in the green ribbon going SW to NE in the direction of the hills. The V-7 gives the vertical contact between the sectors and crosses the V-2 South and two other horizontal V-2s.

These seven ways have been named after the creation of V-7 because of the recent appearance of the cycle with the two wheels all the world over. The two-wheeled vehicles have never to use the same way as the four-wheels and the three-wheels

The Resulting Geography

The resulting geography: Concentration and dissemination (in the city and out of the city)

The "Charter of Athens" of the CIAM has proclaimed the four functions of urbanism.

Each function is to be contained in one container, it is one building. The first problem is to give the specific size of this building according to each function. The modern life has to lodge all its activities in containers of conformed size: 'unities to grandeur conform' .

Each of these tools has to find their rightful place on the land. Their locations must be fixed on the paper (plan) with their necessary surroundings.

The contact will be given by direct or indirect ways which have to be foreseen and fixed from the beginning.

Some of these containers constitute a concentration: the other dissemination. At Chandigarh the place was given to the family containers (the sectors); for the work place was given the Capitol, University, City Centre, and a limited industrial land.

Indispensable facts

The human factors must be put on the summit; it is the relationship between the cosmos and man. Law of Sun is of the greatest importance.

In Chandigarh, the Sun must be controlled. So that the day hours can be employed for working.

It is a technical intervention in the domain of construction of dwellings and public buildings. The air, which will be breathed, is a condition of human life.

The problem of 'aeration' (breathing) is very important.

The control of noise is to be introduced in the urbanistic conception like in the construction of buildings, specific technical problem.

The three following words express the problem to be solved: Air, Sound, Light.

Statute of Land

This denomination expresses exactly what is to be done.

The Statute of the Land is the description of what is proposed and has to be proposed in the future and the engagement of the authority that such realities will never be destroyed by inattentive resolutions or decisions.

Augmentation ; Appreciation of land

Obtaining the money, buying of necessary ground, first bye-laws, permitting to being construction, arriving of the first inhabitants, selling of the first plots etc .

THE PERIPHERY CONTROL ACT

The Periphery Control Act of 1952 created a wide green-belt around the entire union territory.

It regulated all development within 16 kilometers of the city limit, prohibited the establishment of any other town or village and forbade commercial or industrial development.

The idea was to guarantee that Chandigarh would always be surrounded by countryside.

CHANDIGARH ;CIRCULATION

 • 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. “

• 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 have become an organized hierarchy of roads which can bring modern traffic circulation under control.

CORBUSIERS’ WORKS

THE CAPITOL :

The Capitol is Le Corbusier's tour de force : 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 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.

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.

• 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.

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.

• 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.

• The large cuboid base of the hyperbolic drum contains the independent volumes of the upper and the lower 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.

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.

• 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.

AFTER LE CORBUSIER

DEVELOPMENT PATTERN

• Out of the Union Territory's 114 square kilometers, 75 square kilometers constitute the Capital Project area. When Corbusier designed the project he thought that the maximum population would be approximately five lakh. The Capital Project was developed in three phases.

• Sectors 1 to 30 were developed in the first phase; within this area one finds the Secretariat, the High Court, the Assembly, the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, the Punjab University, offices of the Chandigarh Administration, many colleges and schools, hospitals and dispensaries, the city's main commercial area and many other smaller markets, residential neighborhoods, playing fields and stadiums and large public gardens. The first phase was developed with a relatively small population in mind. Residential plots in this phase are of various sizes -- the smallest is 250 square meters while larger plots measure 8,000 square meters. In some sectors one finds even larger plots.

• Sectors 31 to 47 make up Phase II. While many important offices and institutions, including the Chandigarh Medical College and hospital, have been located in this sector, the complexion of this part of the city is overwhelmingly residential. These sectors have a greater density of population and many multi-storey apartment complexes catering to different income groups.

• Chandigarh's third phase is still on the drawing board. Planners are in favour of using these remaining sectors exclusively for high-rise apartment complexes.

AFTER LE CORBUSIER

SQUATTER SETTLEMENTS AND VILLAGES

• As a city, Chandigarh has been a remarkable success story, providing a high quality of life to its citizens and it has grown very rapidly. These two factors have combined to attract not only middle and upper class families but also workmen, skilled and unskilled, and petty tradesmen from more economically depressed areas of the country.

• With their tiny incomes, they have little option but to create their own "housing" -- squatting on vacant lands and erecting makeshift shacks of mud and thatch, using their ingenuity to get water and electricity.

CHANGES IN LAND USE

• Labourers are not the only people who put areas to unauthorised use. Many people residing in the sectors have knocked down back walls and created small shops in a portion of their homes. Land use is informally changed from residential to semi-commercial. This has its effect on services, quality of life, the city's economy and land prices.

AFTER LE CORBUSIER

INFORMAL MARKETS

• The city has seen the mushroom growth of not only squatter settlements but also informal markets. In many sectors, open spaces near the market area have been illegally occupied and converted into congeries of tin and canvas-roofed shacks where petty traders sell all manner of goods. These are locally known as rehri markets.

• Another type of informal market, which began in Chandigarh and has since been adopted in many cities, is the Apni Mandi. Farmers are allowed to sell their produce directly to the consumers; they set out their fruits and vegetables at designated spots which, like the day-markets, are open for business once a week, with the market shifting from site to site in rotation.

BEYOND CHANDIGARH

The success of Chandigarh has had its effect on the growth of towns and settlements in the immediate vicinity. Although the original plan prohibited construction activity within 10 kilometres of the city limits, the state governments of Punjab and Haryana have created satellite townships within this prohibited zone, a large Army cantonment has been set up at Chandimandir and the Union Territory Administration has also developed Manimajra, a village just beyond the Capitol Project area, as a modern residential complex.To the south of the city, the Government of Punjab created Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar "S.A.S Nagar" , informally known by its old name, Mohali. To the east of the city lies Haryana's newly created town of Panchkula.