Chandigarh's Urban Evolution: Comparing Albert Mayer and Le Corbusier's Master Plans

Chandigarh's Urban Evolution: Comparing Albert Mayer and Le Corbusier's Master Plans

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  Chandigarh – ABrief Narrative of the City Based of on the Two Plans- Prepared by Albert Mayer & Le- Corbusier  Jit Kumar Gupta  Jit.kumar1944@gmail.com Chandigarh remains the product and synthesis of two master plans prepared for the city. First Master Plan of Chandigarh owe its evolution to an American Architect Albert Mayer which was drawn in collaboration with Ar Methew Nowicki, a polish architect settled in Tokyo. Second Master Plan of Chandigarh was prepared by- Le Corbusier- a Swiss Architect settled in Paris- which has been implemented on site. Present city owes its existence and glory to the second Master Plan prepared by Le-Corbusier in a short span of 96 hours after having a feel of the site. In fact second Master Plan prepared by Le- Corbusier uses the first Master Plan prepared by Albert Mayer as the base. This brief write up tries to visualise and analyse how Chandigarh would have been different had Mathew Nowicki not died in the tragic air crash in August 1950 and Le- Corbusier was not hired to implement the approved master plan of Albert Mayer. Had the Chandigarh been built based on the first master plan prepared by the Ar Albert Mayer, the city would have looked differently, operated differently, with different quality of life. Paper tries to visualise, the impact of the first master plan of Chandigarh in terms of urban planning, designing, shape, size, residential, commercial areas, traffic and transportation, landscaping etc on the city.  First plan shows clearly the influence of principles and pattern of American planning with basic residential unit defined by Superblock.  Second plan of Corbusier shows the distinct influence of French planning and the principles of city planning defined by CIAM- International Congress of Modern Architects- a forum created by group of eminent architects headed by Corbusier - which worked on defining the principles and approach to planning , designing and mobility of the future cities of machine age/ industrial era. .
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   Both plansdiffer in approach, intent, content, scope, shape, size, planning, transportation etc but have number of commonalities.  Both plans,however agree in terms of the location of the four major elements of the Capital city—Capitol, City Centre, University and Industrial area.  First plan would have made city more traditional and vernacular with large traditional Indian components used in planning and designing the city.  In the Second Master Plan by Le- Corbusier-- the position of capitol has been shifted to the left—to north-west- to create the great artificial water body- Sukhna lake.  Chandigarh would had curved and radial roads rather than straight jacket grid-iron pattern if going by the first plan.  Area of the city would have been greater than what has been planned today with city having lower planned/residential density.  City would have looked more equitable with the absence of S-1( Low density), S-2( High Density), S-3( Re-densification of S-1), proposed as stages of development in the second master plan.  Industrial area would have been much smaller with Sukhna Choe defining its outer edge. Industrial area stands expanded in the second plan with additional area brought under industries on the north- west.  Road pattern would have curves defining travel against existing straight lines – changing the city shape and size  City would have missed the most important water features and tourist hub of the city beautiful--Sukhna Lake.  Sectors would have been missing and superblocks would have defined the Chandigarh structure and fabric.  Residential units – superblocks- would have been small and compact as compared to the existing sectors  City would have missed Rule of 7 Vs- Rui- da-vitante. Amended to include V8bc -to accommodate the two wheelers.
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   Shopping street-V4-would not have been in existence . Shopping would have been more like traditional Indian bazaars with shops located within the superblocks..  Vertical green belts would have been non-existent because of the planning and designing of the city. Instead,residents would had central green spaces enclosed by housing clusters / institutions etc.  Super -blocks would have remained disconnected due to the absence of central vertical greens  City would have missed Margs and Paths- there would have been no Janmarg, Madhya Marg, Uttar Marg, Dakshin Marg, Sarovar Path, Udyog Path etc because of the planning of road network.  City central core would have looked more greener with two major park ways planned as- green belts traversing vertically .  City edges would have lot of greenery with Green Belts defining the outer edges of the city— with green belts separating the city from Patiali–ki-Rao & Sukhna Choe  Location of the city centre would have remained the same with size, shape , planning and designing of buildings varying to a large extent.  Sukhna Choe would have been disintegrated with one part going in the Capitol complex.  Capitol complex would have looked much eco-friendly, cleaner and greener with a permanent water feature made integral part of its planning and designing  Size and population of the super-block (500mx!000m) would have been half that of sector( 800x1200m) with number of super- blocks getting multiplied by a factor of two.  Superblocks would have been socially more balanced due to mixing of residential housing of all categories including- both HIG, MIG and LIG.  City may have been more socially integrated considering the smaller size of the superblock and mix of the housing categories.  City structure would have been defined by two vertical axis and four horizontal ones instead of one vertical and four horizontal margs  Instead of four divisions of the sector ( area 25 Hect appx), the super- block would have three horizontal divisions of 17 hect, only. Reduced size of super-block could have made city more socially vibrant.
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   City wouldhave large number of conflict points with large number of crossings. Instead of one there would have been two horizontal entries to each of the super- blocks  City would have missed its vertical greens connecting them with nature and Shivalik range of hills.  City may have missed its development controls- frame controls etc