Chandigarh Development

2. INTRODUCTION TO CHANDIGARH
 Since Punjab was divided into two parts, the capital was left in Pakistan therefore
Punjab in India required new capital
 The first master plan for the new capital was assigned to American engineer and
planner Albert Mayer.
 He worked on the master plan with his closest assistant, Matthew Nowicki, until the
latter died in a plane crash in 1950. His duties were to take the form of architectural
control.
 Le Corbusier was approached by Punjab government and the prime minister of India
 Chandigarh is a bold experiment in modern civic design
 Maxwell fry, Jane drew and Pierre Jeanerette were also involved in the team of
architects
 When le Corbusier assumed control of the Chandigarh project in 1951, however the
design of the city had already been devised by the New York firm of Mayer, whittles, and
glass who received a contract for the master plan of Chandigarh in 1950
 The birth of Chandigarh has not influenced only the north west region but the whole
country in the matters of architecture and urban planning.
Jawaharlal Nehru, decided to build a new city –
Chandigarh as a capital for the state Punjab after Lahore
was lost to Pakistan.
He had envisioned this city to mark India’s entry into the
modern world , would represent India’s clean break
from the colonial rule of the British.
INTRODUCTION

3. GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
 It was bound by two seasonal choes, or rivulets, the Patiala Rao and the Sukhna in the north-west and the south-east respectively.
 It extends in the northeast right up to the foothills of the shivaliks.
 The region experiences extremes in the climate. The temperature could rise to 45 degrees in summer and drop to freezing point in winter.
 The direction of the prevalent winds is southeast to the northwest in summer and northwest to the southeast in winter.
FACTS ABOUT CHANDIGARH
Union Territory: Chandigarh
Capital: Chandigarh
Language: Punjabi
Area: 114 km2 (Manimajra and Burail)
Elevation: 350 m
LOCATION

4.  A need for the capital
 Rehabilitating refugees
 A rich cultural legacy like Lahore
 A vision of the future
 A centre for governance
HISTORY BEHIND CHANDIGARH
JAWARLAL NEHRU SAID : “Let this be a new town, symbolic of freedom of India unfettered by the traditions of the past. An
expression of the nations faith in the future”
SITE SELECTION
• Mountainous region
• Central location
• Natural drainage
• Sufficient water supply
• Shivalik hills
• Moderate climate
 The site was the sub mountainous area of the
Ambala district about 150 miles north of New
Delhi.
 The area was a flat, gentle sloping plain of
agriculture land dotted with grooves of mango
trees , consisting of 59 villages
DERIVING THE NAME : ‘CHANDIGARH'
Chandigarh derives its name from the deity ‘ Chandi‘ ‐the goddess of power & ‘ garh‘ ‐the fort .
gave the city its name "Chandigarh ‐The City Beautiful".
 The gently sloping plains on which Chandigarh exist was in the past, when the Himalayas were young, a wide
lake ringed by a marsh.
 The fossil remains found at the site testify to a large variety of aquatic and amphibian life.
 Some 8000 yrs. ago Chandigarh was home to the Harappan's. Their stone implements, ornaments, and copper
arrow heads unearthed during the excavations in the 1950s and 1960s testify this.
HISTORY, NAME & SITE

5. When India became independent, it was found that there were native no
trained professionals on city planning. Political leaders hired American
architects- Matthew Nowicki, and Albert Mayer to plan the city.
The project was handed over to Le Corbusier in the year 1951 by Jawaharlal
Nehru. Le Corbusier led a team that consisted of a French architect Pierre
Jeanerette, Englishmen Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew and about twenty Indian
architects and developed a new project.
EVOLVING CHANDIGARH PLAN

6. ALBERT MAYER : THE MASTER PLAN
EVOLVING CHANDIGARH PLAN
 Mayer was the first one to get the Chandigarh project
 Matthew Nowicki was invited to join the staff assembled to plan Chandigarh. His duties were to take the form of architectural control.
 Mayer was thrilled with the prospect of planning a brand-new city, and he accepted the assignment although it offered him a modest fee of $30,000 for
the entire project. His brief was to prepare a master plan for a city of half a million people, showing the location of major roads and areas for residence,
business, industry, recreation and allied uses. He was also to prepare detailed building plans for the Capitol Complex, City Centre, and important
government facilities and architectural controls for other areas.
 Mayer stated that he was trying to create something “that really applies to what we have talked about much but which has been at best done in a limited
way in Radbubn, the greenbelt towns and baldwin hills.
 The basic aim, stated Mayer, was a beautiful city.
 The master plan which Albert Mayer produced for Chandigarh assumes a fan-shaped outline, spreading gently to fill the file the site between the two
river beds.
 The provincial govt. Buildings are located the upper edge of the city within a fork in one of the rivers, while the central business district occupies an area
near the centre. a curving network of main roads surrounds the residential superblocks, each of which contains a central area of parkland.
 Two larger parks may be seen stretching through the city.
 The flatness of the site allowed almost complete freedom in creating street layout and it is of interest to note that the overall pattern deliberately avoids a
geometric grid in favour of a loosely curving system.
 The death of Nowicki necessitated the selection of a new architect for Chandigarh.
 It was the minister of planning who suggested le-Corbusier and who also recommended the inclusion of Pierre Jeanerette whom he termed a’’ good
detail man.’’

7.  The flatness of the site allowed almost complete freedom in creating street layout and it is of
interest to note hat the overall pattern deliberately avoids a geometric grid in favor of a loosely
curving system.
Drawings showing Mayer’s master plan and neighbourhood unit on top and Le Corbusier´s
plan and Sector below.
 The provincial govt. Buildings are located the upper edge of the city within a fork in one of the
rivers, while the central business district occupies an area near the center.
 A curving network of main roads surrounds the residential superblocks, each of which
contains a central area of parkland
EVOLVING CHANDIGARH PLAN

8. MASTER PLAN : LE CORBUSIER
 In 1951 it was given to le Corbusier
 Le Corbusier requested the assistance of his cousin Pierre Jeanerette.
 Jeanerette eventually agreed to live on the site as his representative and chief architect.
 Le Corbusier could then visit India twice a year for a month at a time (he came to the site 22 times). Thus, Jeanerette, together with Fry and Drew, as
senior architects working in India for a period of three years and assisted by a team of 20 idealistic young Indian architects, would detail the plan and
Le Corbusier could concentrate on major buildings.
 In Chandigarh, le Corbusier system of self supporting neighbourhood unit known as a sector has worked very well
 Sector which is introverted in character communicates only at 4 junctions with the adjoining neighbourhood units
 All the houses open up inside
 Grid planning is done
 Chandigarh planning was done in an manner that everything was easily clear about the routes and sectors
 7 v’s road system is used
 The roads are classified as v1 ,v2 ,v3………V7
 Le- Corbusier was responsible for the general outlines of the master plan and the creation of the monumental buildings, while Pierre Jeanerette, Maxwell
Fry and Jane Drew were charged with the task of Developing the neighbourhood sectors with their schools, shopping bazaars, and the tracts of
government housing.
 In the program presented to the architects,13 categories of houses were specified , each corresponding to a level of government employment.
MASTER PLAN

9. MASTER PLAN : LE CORBUSIER
 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 Super block 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 northwest.
Le Corbusier conceived the master plan of Chandigarh as analogous to human body, with a clearly defined
Head (the Capitol Complex, Sector 1),
Heart (the City Centre Sector-17),
Lungs (the leisure valley, innumerable open spaces and sector greens),
Intellect (the cultural and educational institutions),
Circulatory system (the network of roads, the 7Vs) and
Viscera (the Industrial Area)
MASTER PLAN

10.  Post war ‘Garden city’
 Le Corbusier modular system
 Analogous to human body
 Head–capitol (place of power)
 Heart –the city centre
 Stomach–the commercial area
 Arms–university and Industrial zone
 Lungs–leisure valley ,open spaces
 Arteries–network of roads
CONCEPT

11.  An integrated system of seven road types.
 Pathways for cyclists
 Roads intersected at right angles forming a grid.
 Hierarchy of movement.
 Residential areas segregated from the traffic.
ROAD SYSTEM
An integrated system of seven road types
V-1--Fast roads connecting Chandigarh to other towns
V-2--arterial roads
V-3 --Fast vehicular roads
V-4 --Meandering shopping streets
V-5 --Sector circulation roads
V-6 --Access roads to houses
V-7 --footpaths and cycle tracks
Buses will ply only on V-1, V-2, V-3 and V-4 roads.

12. THREE DISCIPLINES
The discipline of money
 Le Corbusier once remarked that India has the treasures of a proud culture, but her coffers are empty.” And throughout the project the desire for
grandness was hampered by the need for strict economy.
 In working up his designs, le Corbusier consulted the program for each building as given in the budget and then prepared the initial project.
The discipline of technology
 Available in quantity, however, was good clay stone and sand, and, above all human labour.
 The materials of which Chandigarh has been constructed are rough concrete in the capitol complex and the central business district and for most of the
city, especially in housing, locally produced brick.
The discipline of climate
 Besides the administrative and financial regulations there was a law of the sun in India.
 The architectural problem consists; first to make shade, second to make a current of air[to ventilate],third to control hydraulics.
DISCIPLINES FOLLOWED WHILE PLANNING

13. PLAN OF THE CITY
 V1 connects Chandigarh to other cities
 V2 are the major avenues of the city e.g. Madhya Marg etc.
 V3 are the corridors streets for vehicular traffic only
 V4…..v7 are the roads within the sectors
 Chandigarh has been planned on the scientific principles and to
apprise the coming generation of these principles
 The main feature of this edict are its-
 Human scale
 Self sufficient sectors
 Roads system
 Areas of special interest
 Architectural control
Corbusier’s conceptual sketch showing the v-road system
ROAD SYSTEM

14. THE SITE PLAN
 Here the secretariat building is
treated as a horizontal platform like
the plain of Chandigarh itself,
carrying on its roof the provincial
assembly hall rising in a parabolic
arch, a form echoing the distant hills
 As a response to the sun, the capitol
complex can be interpreted as an
interlaced array of sun breakers
 Inspiration from unite
 It lies in the foot of shivalik hills just
next to artificial lake
 Governor’s palace was supposed to be in
the site but the idea was abandoned
 The capitol area was designed as the great
pedestrian plaza with motor traffic separated
into sunken trenches leading to parking
areas
 Although the site is very big, it is not
designed with allowance for expansion
SITE PLAN

15. 1.Inspecting the site,1951.
2.Building roads, 1951.
3.Ministers bungalow, sec-2,1956.
4.Nursery school, sector -16,1956
1.Town hall & state library, sec-17,1961.
2.Polytechnique for men, sec-26,1961.
3.Gandhi Bhavan, sec-14,1966.
4.Administration building, sec-14.1966.
Drawings showing the realisation of the first phase of Chandigarh from 1951-66.
PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT

16. THE SECTOR
 Taking Chandigarh as an example, we may see at once the democratic idea which allows us to devote an equal care to housing all classes of society to
seek new social groupings, new patterns of education and public welfare, and made more possible by practical application of the scientific idea which
through industrialism, gives us such benefits as piped water, electricity and cheap transport.
 Each sector is designated by number, the capital complex being number 1,with the remaining sectors numbered consecutively beginning at the north
corner of the city.
 At present there are 30 sectors in Chandigarh, of which 24 are residential.
 The sectors at the upper edge of the city are of abbreviated size.
 In all type of housing ,partly because of the glazing expense, partly to keep out sun.
 As the most economical and readily available material for building at Chandigarh was locally made brick, this became the material of construction.
 The flat roof was employed throughout in Chandigarh housing because of its usefulness as a sleeping area
 70% of the building would be private in all the sectors.
 Residential lots ranging in dimensions from 75 sq. Yards to 5000 sq. yards.
 This is because the capitol complex is contained within the boundaries of sector 3 extended to its full dimensions.
THE SECTOR

17. THE SECTOR
 In its first phase Chandigarh was
organized in 30sectors.
 The sector was conceived as an
autonomous unit including housing as
well as all service needed for
everyday life: schools, artisans,
shops, leisure.

18. The basic planning of the city is a sector:
 to accommodate 3,000 to 25,000 persons.
 30 sectors in Chandigarh
 24 are residential.
 The sectors surrounded by high speed roads
 bus stops every 400m.
 The main principle of the sector is that never a door will open on
the surrounding of fast vehicular road.
 The size of the sector is based on the concept of no pedestrian
need to walk for more than 10min .
THE SECTOR

19. •The primary module of city’s design is a Sector, a neighbourhood unit of size 800 meters x 1200 meters.
•Each SECTOR is a self-sufficient unit having shops, school, health centres and places of recreations and
worship.
•The population of a sector varies between 3000 and 20000 depending upon the sizes of plots and the
topography of the area.
View of typical Roads and Round-a-bouts in the city
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN

20. HIERARCHY OF GREEN AREAS & BUILDING TYPOLOGIES
1.City Level Public Green Space with Artificial Water Body
2.Free- Flowing Green Space, connecting the entire site
3.Semi-Private Green Areas for neighbourhood pockets
4.Private Green Areas for Residential Units
The Basic Building
Typology is observed as
extremely Rectilinear with
similar proportions.
In both the developments
the smaller individual
Residential Units are
arranged around central
common Green Spaces,
although the shapes are
different.

21. The city landscape plan of the first phases,
showing the leisure valley & the swaths of
green spaces that also act as flood control
The growth of Chandigarh 1966-96, starting with sectors
1 & 2 in phase 1, & currently consisting of 86 sectors
THE SECTOR

22. CHANDIGARH :THE PRESENT SCENARIO
Each sector is designated by number, the capital complex
being number 1,with the remaining sectors numbered
consecutively beginning at the north corner of the city.
Drawings showing sector 22 with its shopping district running
across the sector.

23. THE CAPITOL COMPLEX
 The area of the greatest symbolic significance in
Chandigarh was the capitol complex , which in its final
form was based on the design of a grate cross axis
 The most important group of the buildings constituting the
capitol- right, the parliament, left, in the background, the
secretariat
 In the foreground, the pool of the palace of justice
 The artificial hills in the front of the secretariat have not
been created and laid out in accordance with Corbusier’s
conceptions
 Although the scene is harmonious in effect, there are still
missing the buildings that belong here ,such as , for
instance, the towers of shadows
1.Parliament
2.Secretariat
3.Governor’s Palace
4.High Court
5.Truncated Pyramid
6.Monument for the victims
7.Open Hand
CAPITOL COMPLEX
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

24. SECRETARIAT
ASSEMBLY HALL
HIGH COURT
GOVERNORS PALACE
OPEN HAND
 Here the secretariat building is treated as
a horizontal platform like the plain of
Chandigarh itself, carrying on its roof the
provincial assembly hall rising in a
parabolic arch, a form echoing the distant
hills
 As a response to the sun, the capitol
complex can be interpreted as an
interlaced array of sun breakers
 It lies in the foot of shivalik hills just next to
artificial lake Governors palace was
supposed to be in the site but the idea
was abandoned
 The capitol area was designed as the
great pedestrian plaza with motor traffic
separated into sunken trenches leading to
parking areas
 Although the site is very big, it is not
designed with allowance for expansion
CAPITOL COMPLEX

25. THE SECRETARIAT
 The first design for the secretariat presents the building as a tall thin slab carrying a surface brise soleil divided by a central horizontal band
 The design which was accepted established the building form as a long ,horizontal concrete slab
 The secretariat, the longest building in Chandigarh, 254m long, and 42m high forms the administrative centre, with ministerial offices grouped in the
centre and offices for employees arranged on either side
 The building was completed in 1958
 The building is composed of six ,eight storey blocks separated by expansion joints
 The central pavilion, block 4, contains the offices of the ministers
 The rough concrete again interposes in the fenestration of the two main facades ; more than 2000 units of unique design
 Approach to the building is through roadways below ground level to a large parking area in front of the central block, and a floor is left open at this level
to form an entrance hall
 Block 1 and 2 rises directly from the ground
 Block 3,4 and part of 5 face on the excavated area of the parking lot and have the lower storey open between pilotis.
 For the rest part of block 5 and whole of 6 the level goes till plaza height, and lower portion of these blocks are left open to a height of two stories
 The top of the building is developed as a roof garden containing the service blocks and cafeteria for employees
 The plastic emphasis is given to the building by free standing exterior ramps enclosed in rough concrete walls
 For supplementary communication within the building , each of six blocks is equipped with interior stairways and limited elevator service
 Horizontal circulation is by means of a central corridors
 For minister’s block the bay size is increased and the column is thickened
THE SECRETARIAT

26. THE SECRETARIAT
FREE FACADE
RAMP ENCLOSURE
ROUGH CONCRETE
FINISH
SQUARE WINDOWS
PROJECTED PORTICOS
SMALL ENTRANCE
BIG ENTRANCE

27. THE HIGH COURT
 An entire structure has resulted in the use of double roof
 The upper roof cantilevered out of the office block in the manner of parasol shading the lower roof, arch form restricted to underside of parasol roof
 The space between the two roofs is left open to enable currents of air to move between the flat roof of the office block and the underside of the parasol
roof which slopes towards centre in the form of rows of arches
 In the plan the building took the form of abbreviated l – shaped with long façade facing the capitol plaza to contain court rooms
 The building is a rectilinear frame within which the interior functions are defined
 The eight court rooms are identically expressed on the main façade and separated from the larger high court by a monumental columned entrance rising
the height of the building
 Building rises directly from the earth & the main façade is defined by a full height concrete brise soleil
 It is the visual drama of the piers rising sixty feet from the ground to meet the heavy outward thrust of the roof which creates the focal emphasis of the
present plan
 On the main façade the deep fixed concrete brise soleil gives a strong and scale less pattern to the building
 It is the concrete screen which gives the main façade its overall unity
 Behind the brise soleil , the windows of the court rooms are of fixed glass, but between are narrow vertical spaces containing shutters which open & close
on hinges
 It is noted that the orientation of the high court is such that the main façade faces north west , and this does not receive direct sunlight
 The rough concrete of the building is treated in variety of manners for much of the surface including the underside of the parasol roof and the exterior side
walls , the mass of sheet metal characterize the surface
 In portions of the interior and on the ramps , wooden boards have been inserted within the metal forms to give the concrete surface the impress of their
jointed pattern, while other surfaces, including those of massive entrance piers are finished with gunnite cement.
THE HIGH COURT

28. THE HIGH COURT
It consists of an L-shaped block framed by a concrete that in the
shape of arches, and that somehow establishes an reference to the
covers of the havelis in Mughal architecture.
This space between the double cover offers a smooth
ventilation in the summer and protection during the rainy
season.
The building contains 8 high
courts and a supreme court .
Le Corbusier devised a set of
outdoor terraces, which now are
used as warehouses.

29. PARASOL ROOF FORMING
ARCHES
DOUBLE ROOF
GAP LEFT
BETWEEN
TWO ROOFS
FULL HT. ENTRANCE
ROUGH CONCRETE
FINISHED RAMP
REAR VIEW
DOUBLE ROOF
APPROACHED THROUGH ROADS
COLORED MASSIVE
PILLARS
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

30. THE ASSEMBLY HALL
 The assembly was conceived as a rectilinear structure
 It is square in plan with a monumental portico facing the main plaza
 On the lateral facades both the portico and the office block would be
defined by solid end walls
 The large chamber is in hyperbolic form of the cooling tower with an
average thickness of 15 cms.
 The small council chamber are in rectilinear frame
 The upper portion of the tower is extending above the roof line
 An assembly chamber is 128 ft. in diameter at its base and rises to 124 ft.
at its highest point
 This tower was designed to insure the natural light, ventilation and proper
acoustics
 Of all buildings of the capitol complex , the assembly is the most intricate
in plan
 Separate circulation accommodation of all groups is provided
 Employing a system of individual entrances, stairways, lifts and ramp a
complete segregation of members is provided
 There are two separate galleries for men and women in council chamber
THE ASSEMBLY HALL

31. ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
 Parasol roof
 Forming arches
 Double roof
 Gap left between
 Two roofs
 Colored massive pillars
 Full height entrance
 Approached through roads
 Rough concrete finished ramp
 The entrance lobby is paved with whitish flag stone set in the rows of varying widths
 New scheme for painting the columns and portico walls in bright contrasting colors
 The inside wall to the left of the piers was to be black
 The adjacent pillar painted green
 The centre pier would be yellow
 The right hand pillar is red
 And the remaining portico wall is primary blue
 The grate entrance hall of the high court is also been found in lacking protection during the monsoon season
 The narrow curving ramp at the end of the entrance hall, which forms the main vertical circulation is exposed
 The horizontal circulation, consisting of open corridors on the rear facade ,is also ineffectively sheltered
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

32. SECTOR -17: CITY CENTRE
 The city centre consists of different squares tied together by broad avenues.
 At the present time, when this centre is still devoid of any sort of vegetation, the unshaded open areas can be quite unpleasant.
 This sector-17 is virtually uninhabited, but it is enlivened during the daytime by the many shops, bazaars, restaurant, cafes, banks and department
stores.
 There is doubt that at present the city centre still looks like an experiment.
 The urban circulation here is in sharp contrast to the ‘oriental’ bazaar streets, the narrow alleys full of noise and plunged in shadow.
 Of all the cities of India , only Chandigarh can claim to be an absolutely modern town , ”untouched by the tradition of the past,” as Jawaharlal Nehru so
aptly remarked .
 The execution of the buildings for the city centre was assigned to different architects. Pierre Jeanerette conscientiously supervised and organized the
schemes determined by le Corbusier.
 The plans can vary as required, but must respect a sufficiently large open surface along the facades as anti-glare protection.
CITY CENTRE

33. LEISURE VALLEY
A green sprawling space extending north-east to south-west along a seasonal river let gradient
and was conceived by Le Corbusier as the “lungs” of the city.
 This valley houses the series of fitness trails, amphitheatre and spaces for open-air
exhibition.
 Rock garden designed by Nek Chand in 1957 .
LEISURE VALLEY

34. SUKHNA LAKE
 The club house- north of the capitol no additional structures were to be erected, in order not to impede the view of the Himalaya.
 This was an express condition laid down by le Corbusier.
 The club house was however necessity.
 Le Corbusier designed a complex lying 3 meters beneath road level, so that the house is scarcely visible from the promenade.
 The causeway- Chandigarh is surrounded by the rivers Patiala and Manimajra, which carry water only during the monsoon season.
 The reinforced concrete construction is simple and plain, and its severe lines harmonize entirely with the natural setting.
 At all other times of the year they are dry.
 During the hot months of may and June, enormous amounts of dust used to blow into the city.
 Trees and shrubs were planted as a protective zone along these rivers, so that the city is
now free of the inconvenience of this flying sand.
 One of these rivers has been dammed.
 In 1955 the water boulevard was extended in the shape of a causeway, or dam,
the retaining wall being more than
 20 meters high and 4 kilometres long.
 This dam, with its width on top of 24meters, thus yielded a promenade.
 The artificial lake created behind the dam has modified the climate of the city.
SUKHNA LAKE

35. POSITIVE & NEGATIVE HIGHLIGHTS
POSITIVE HIGHLIGHTS
 First modern architecture of Indian city planning.
 Each sector satisfies the necessities of human needs.
 Separate roads for pedestrian, bicycle and heavy vehicles.
 Visually powerful.
 Open spaces in front of shopping centres.
 Buildings designed as triple storied shop cum flats.
 Shops on ground floor.
 Residence on upper floor
 Continuous verandah in front of the shop.
 Shop protected from rain and sun.
 As a covered walkway for the customers.
NEGATIVE HIGHLIGHTS
 City not planned according to Indian tradition and
culture.
 Roads being similar to each other creates confusion.
 Brutal concrete gives a rough look.
 City not planned for lower income people.
 Existence of slums around the city.
 Large open spaces in front of the city centre makes
people lost in those places.