December 19, 1950. Charles-Édouard Jeanneret — the Swiss-French architect better known as Le Corbusier — signed a contract with the Government of India for an advisory role. An advisor for the master plan of a city that was to become the capital of the part of Punjab that remained with India after the Partition. Shimla filled the gap till Chandigarh, the city that Corbusier signed up for, took over in 1960.
Interestingly, the man who entrusted Corbusier with the task of designing India’s first modernist city, first met the architect almost a year after they signed the contract. In fact, the first meeting between Corbusier and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru — “the central figures of this enterprise” — may have been the genesis of Chandigarh’s famous Open Hand sculpture. In a letter to a close friend, the architect noted that Nehru “was very grave” throughout the meeting: “Not until just before the two took their leave did he smile kindly and nod his head when the architect remarked... that ‘wherever unlimited intellectual and material wealth flows in the modern world, we must open our hand to receive and give’” (Maristella Casciato).
Mapin’s new title, Chandigarh Revealed: Le Corbusier’s City Today is a collection of 243 photographs and five maps that analyse the multiple buildings across the city. Also a Union Territory, Chandigarh, in designer-photographer Shaun Fynn’s words, remains “facinating today not only for the importance of Le Corbusier’s works but also for its patina of time and the changes that have shaped the city in ways he could never have foreseen.”
It also has its share of problems. Planned for just half a million residents, Chandigarh is now home to more than twice the number. The resultant growth of unplanned housing is not in keeping with the “visual codes” set out by Team Corbusier. The care of the city’s many “civic spaces” — parks, gardens and recreation areas — is another cause for concern. Photos by: Shaun Fynn