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Cryppter 13

Le Corbusier in India:

The Symbolism of Chandigarh

'Architecture has Us public use, public buildings being the ornameni of" country: it establishes a nation, draws people and commerce, and makes people love their "alive country, which passion is the origin of ali great actiOIU in a commonwealth. '

Sir Christopher Wren

It was consistent with the other twists and paradoxes of Le Corbusier's late career that his grandest monumental designs and most complete urban plan sbould have been realized far from the industrial countries of the West towards which he had directed his architectural gospel. Neil.ber the United States nor France, the mOSllikely candidates, offered the architect a major public building, and the fiasco over the United Nations only confirmed his already well-formed (and wellfounded) suspicions of public patronage . .!!y .. gln.lrast, India - poor, technologically backward, making the first tentative steps after independence- welcomed Le Corbusier with open arms and a wide range of commissions: the urban layout of Chandigarh .. .fmu:.major goveJ.'l::..

i men_! buildings including aferliame~<tFJ'~9 I ~utt, two museums, and a number of instifu-

I banal and domestic projects for Ahmedabad (the \ subject of the next chapter). Only Paris and La

Chaux-de-Fonds can show as many Corbusian buildings as these two Indian cities, and the Parliament building at Chamligart. must be counted one of the architect's masterworks.

. Family resemblances can be found between the Indian buildings and Le Corbusier's contemporary European projects. The~is_a.s_i.lllil~r. sculptural weight, and intensity in the use of light -and space; ·naturiil:aiial"gi.~_s ~mLcosmic]hem~s 'unde'rli,,-imig~zy;- materialsJike brick .and.bare concrete :~r:~us.ed iii.a deliberately rough ",ayl'o evO:~ej~ichaip all~p!imjtivist.a.ssociatioDS ... Pa<;ades lend to be highly textured with intervals controlled by the Modulor, and new elements like the deep-cut bnse-soleu, the ondulatoire and the aeraleur are employed with thick directional

. piers. But Le Corbusier was not simply exporting

a global formula: his usual type-solutions were modified to the limitations of local technology, the strengths of regional handicraft and the demands of a searing clim~. He was quick to ?<i"rrzetl.al: hiWii's-cfe,illng with an old civilization evolving rapidly towards modern democracy yet also trying to rediscover roots after the colonial experience. Glib modernity and the slush of nostalgia were equally to be avoided. The

situation demanded largesse, vision and insight

f

into what was relevant in India's spiritual and material past.

If India and Le Corbusier seem right for one another in retrospect, their initial convergence was anything but straigbtforward. Chandigarh was born out of the massacres,tt'!8._edies and hopes that attended partition and thicreation of Pakist3Jj. In July 1947 the Independence Bill was signed lod British rule in India came to an end. Whe!' Pakistan came into existence the following year the State of the Punjab was cut in two, milliOJls of refugees fled in both directions, blood was spilt in great quantities and the old state capital of Lahore was left on the Pakistani side. Temporarily business was run from Simla, the British hill station, but this was practically and symbolically inadequate. It was obvious that a new city must be rounded to anchor the situation and to give refugees (many of whcm were Hindu or Sikh) a home. P.L. Varma, Chief Engineer of the Punjab, and P.N. Thapar, State Administrator of Public Works, considered a number of sites before settling on a place between two river valleys, just off the main Delhi to Simla line, a safe distance from Pakistan and at a point where the huge plains began to fold into the foothills of tbe Himalayas. Transport, water, raw materials, central position in the state were aU practical considerations, but Varma still insists that an intuition of the genius loci played its part. The place felt auspicious: they chose the name after 'Chandi' , the Hindu goddess of power.

From the outset it was clear that Chandigarh would be no mere local venture. Pandit Nehru' and the central governmentfeh the Punjab disaster keenly and realized the importance of cementing new institutions and housing in place . New Delhi agreed to cover one third of the initial costs and Nehru himself recommende~ ~¥aye!:.. an American planner whose acquaintance JieIiii(I" made during the war, to layout the new city. Matthew Nowicki,_il capable young architect who liad once worked with Le Corbusier, was selected to concentrate on architectural matters, including the design of the main democratic institutions on the Capitol. A modem and efficient city, with up-to-date services, sewerage

,

and transport was envisaged by me government. Nehru spoke of clean, open s~aces liberating

Indians from tfie{yrann ott e over nd

filthy cities, as e as rom t e confines of agricultural, village life. Chandigarh, then, was to be a visible and persuasive instrument of nati onel economic and social development, consonant with Nehru's belief that the country must industrialize or perish. It was to be a showpiece or-'" B&eraJ and enlightened patronage, and he would later eulogize Chandigarh as a 'temple of the New India'.

( Mayer's plall of 1950 organized the city into sectors around a hierarchy of green swards and curved roads. The commercial zone was at the centre, the indus.trial !U.ea to the south-east, and tbe~ to the top or north-easterly extremity, separate frOm the residences and on the verge of open countryside. Nowicki's few extant sketches show that he thought of the Capitol as a series

of objects. separated by wlde, open spaces.

He began to experiment with a vocabulary of columns and screens for some of the buildings. 'The Parliament was expressed as a spiral ziggurat, obviously but skilfully modelled On Le Corbusier's Mundaneum project of 1929. Mayer

was a major proponent of Garden City thinking in America, and his picturesque roads and green spaces set about with low-rise buildings conformed to this point of view, as well as extending the British tradition of suburban residential zones 00 the outskirts of numerous Indian towns. But the overall shape of Mayer's plan, as well as the placing of the city of affairs as a separate 'head', also loosely recalls Le Corousler's Ville Radieuse,

Fate intervened in spring 1950 when Nowicki was killed in a plane crash in EgYPt. Agai n Thapar and Varma set out to find a new chief architect. They continued to feel that there was no one in India remotely capable of handling such a tbing (scarcely surprising given the habits of professional training under the Raj). They went to London and spoke to Jane Drew and Maxwell Pry, who had experience designing in tbe tropics but who hesitated to take the whole job on

and recommended Le Ccrbusier, The delegation went to Paris and the master turned them down, especially when be heard that they wanted him to move to India and realized how low the

fees would be. But gradually he came round, declaring that the necessary work could be done mainly in Paris. Finally he agreed to be chief

198 c: 1951-6. seuth-e toward Buildi.

The Symbolism of Chandigarh

199 Town pi •• of Chandigarb,1951.

architectural consultant for the city ~ a whole and exclusive designer of tile Capito! buildings. He accepted a modest monthly salary and agreed

to make two month -long visits a year to India. Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry were 10 be employed on three-year contracts, concentrating attention on the design of aU facilities for residential sectors, and then forming teams of young Indian architects to carry on the work (eventually under Pierre Jeanneret). Poor Mayer was to continue as planner, but he would be no match for the far more powerful personality of Le Ccrbusler, a man who had reflected on the nature of cities for forty years, who saw no real division between the functions of architect and planner, and who now firmly intended to lay down the law.

In spring 1951 Le Corbusier went to India and met the rest of the team in a rest-bouse on tbe road to Simla, where they worked together for about four weeks. But the guiding principles of the new Chandigarh plan were laid down in four days. In principle it followed Mayer's, as the contract had suggested that it should. But both Fry and Le Corbusier had found the curved roads flaccid, so Le Corbusier returned to an orthogonal grid while Fry sneaked in a few curved lateral roads for variety. The anthrcpomorphic diagram - head, body, arms, spine, stomach, etc, - of the new plan was accentuated by major axial routes crossing towards the centre; it , reverted more closely 10 Ihe farm of the Ville Radieuse, But The elements making it up were quite different. The skyscrapers afthe technocrats were replaced by the Shelters of democracy at the head; the communal medium-rise apartment houses of the main body were replaced by a gradation of different house types (eventually fourteen in all) catering for manual labourers at the bottom social rung up to judges and highlevel bureaucrats at the top, There would be variants on terrace houses and magnificent modem bungalows but (it was eventually

no high-rise buildings. b!'_Co(bJlsje_~ that his usual housing models had a limited relevance in a place where there was plenty of land and where people Were used to

living baJtputside_fle confid~.lohis.sketchbook 1ffiinbe' basic unit in the Indian city was 'the-lied.

under the stars'.' .. .. _ ... - . .

- Each rectangular sector of Chandigarh meas-

ured about 4,000 by 2,600 feet and Was to be

regarded as a largely self-contained urban COmmunity, Sectors were linked - and separated-

by a grid of different-sized roads varying in size

from small bridle (or rather bicycle) paths within

the sectors, to residential arteries, throughways,

and finally the grandiose Jan Marg running up the centre of the city towards the Capitol. In alheveJ)~ \ rn~intypes~of.cil:CJl!~liOl'l were worked out; '_ .. ' !\~I typically these were canonized 'Ies sept Vs' (Short .:

for 'voies' Or 'ways'). Evidently Le Corbusier '.'

was anticipating a time ~en motor traffic I

might become a major force in India, In atber I I'

respects tooth~..Miollowed ~rtJusian I'

prescriptio!'s: the~g ?fli\>ing. t

'!!:l)rking, ~1rl;U]aUOn and leIsure; the fusion of / i I

cDuiitry1ind cny through the planting and pro- II

vision of trees and parks; rigid geometrical I: I

control and delight in.graed vistas and proees- '/

sional axes; a sense of openness rather than of ;'

enclosure; a lingering hope that urban order !

might bring :facial regeneration in its wake. ./

Much of this runs against the planning fasbion _ of the moment, which is squeamish about any form of en,.,ronmental determinism, nervous

about the grand plan, and committed to spatial :' li ,-:;

enclosure and the cultivation of visual variety:'

But before The-d.i.,,:t~tC$ of the present are im-

posed On Chandigarh it should be born in mind

that a bold statement of order embodying the

idea of a beneficent but stabilizing state was a

virtual demand of Le Corbusier's clients. The

tlite with which he had contact was cosmopolitan

and often Western-educated; it probably did not

see itselfliving in some higgledy-piggledy

Orientalist version of'Indian Life'. Le Corbu-

sier's mandate came in part from Nehru, who

later spoke of Chandigarh as 'reaching beyond

tbe existing encumbrances of old towns and old

traditions' and as 'the first large expression of our

creative genius, founded on our newly earned

freedom'. There was little room in this vision for

Gandhi's spinning-wheels or for his idealization

of the village as tbe moral core of Indian life,

indeed the construction of Chandigarh entailed

the destruction of a number of villages_

Of course there is no divine rule which says -I

that grids and axes are the only appropriate :,'

metaphors for The rational and modernizing "

powers of government, but in I.e Cor busier's mind such associations prob.ablydid exist. It

was as if he wished to give to the New India its symbolic ~g~iv~lent to the Raj's New Delhi. He , studied and admired the grand axes and main Raj Path of that city, as well as the monumental approach to Lutyens's Viceroy's House, Like his Englishpredec .. o;qT he too hoped 10 synthesize the Grand Classical and Indian traditions with a statement of modern aspirations, But obviously the task of crystallizing the ethos of a liberated and democratic society was quite different from that of expressing foreign domination and imper-

The Symbolism of Chandigarh

ial powerILe Corbusier's belief that the city as a musings through the back door as he revelled in

, whole should carry symbolic values took him . village folklore and the apparent harmony of

back to old fascinations: the axis between the Arc people, things, animals and nature. Thus the deTriomphCcand the Louvre; the superb icono- . sophisticated foreign primitivist intuited links

graphic clarity of the plan of ancient Peking; between his own contrived v!,otheism and the

perhaps even to the ancient Hindu theoretical deeply rooted cosmic myth, of India's ancient

texts on urbanism, tbe 'Shilpas' in whicb cities religions: the 'delights of Hindu philosophy', the

were sometimes described as centric diagrams 'fraternity between cosmos and living beings'.

With main roads intersecting at their centre. It is I And all this seemed substantial, rich and vital

rather doubtful whether Le Corbusier studied ~. alongside tbe anaem''C and trivial values of

these thecretical precepts, but he-certainly knew" modern industrial life_ Gradually India sc1!l.c_d

a_rel~~~ely modern. incorp.oration ~fthem:. tlle \ int~l,!,_,9:>~tl!~~~!~s_'i!!!llil..!~.a ~u.~trY.. t~at_must

~!y_.e.,ghl!lenth-cCl)tury CIty of Jaipur, which was aVOId the voracious mdustnahsm of the 'firstlaid out on a grid of wide streets. If Le Corbusier J]i"cbhie age' by forging a new Culture (in a firm bad taken a greater interest in the urban qualities moral base involving equilibrium between the oftbe commercial centre at Chandigarh he might religious and the secular, the rustic and the

have found relevant lessons at Jaipur for the Qlecbanical.

shaded linkageofpublic courtyards; unfortunate- While Le Corbusier was absorbing the human

ly he did not. content of the Chandigarh problem he was also (.-> ...... 1 ~:

f! Thus, despite the rhetoric of Nehru, the past reflecting on the. best ways of dealing with

II was not banished at Chandigarh; rather it Was (~·(jn:so.~}1s .~~.d"'<Xtrem~_heatfHe studied or __ '1 \

~f' ~xa:'O~~_~h-~e"':h~o~'u"¥tn-~ob.~y.'eFlrey_v,aDntr-leew'~~a'Lnnds.op.JI'-e~rrrean- Isketched vernacular structures, colonial verandlas, \ ,-+.,' ./

u _'1 ~ C :: I~ I ! the loggias of Mogul pavilions, the shaded walk\ '

anneret used concrete, brick and modern I I ways of Hindu temple precincts, and tried to distil <f---- '*'

"~) umbing and equipment, but the. architects a1sp .!.~,:.basic lessons t;om them. These in turn be I

_ ... 'V ed to respect custom and .~~s .. t~.1Q !!>e.. !J!l.~se I sought to blend with the fundamentals of his owl'

an. and to transform ~rnacular prototypes'lzj . architetural system: the skeleton of the Dom-ina

e proyision of loggias, sle~ping terraces; __ I : or the low vaults of the Monol. In his search I

1_ temtorial walls and shading\ Le Corbusier's . for a basic, modern 'Indian grammar' the Nortb. -

I fndian SKetchbooks brim over with rustic enthu- : African projects from the 1920s, 19305, and 1940s

. siasms, He sketched the simple yet ancient tools . w~re obviously pertinent, especially for dealing}

I cf the peasants, returning time and again to the ·~'_t.~thesun; 2iJO Th.Hij

tJ!!~1!!t f~f_JpS o!.~!,~:car.ts,_Q~n~~,:e.~~~to his Le Corbusier's guiding ideas for tile Governor's from the Par

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Palace, the High Court, the Parliament and the, \. sior's earli';-stliiiliaj; sketches were one~ of tb~ 'I Secretariat developed with astonishing rapidity= i eighteenth-century garden at Pinjore that used'

in his portable atelier, the sketchbooks. The, i clever effects of illusion to compress together

unif):ing__ theme and.leitmotiy of the Capitol was .tcrraces of water with the rugged outlines-of the

:e.~t(6)!~b~liis tti~:p.raiQJ.Or,p_rotecti~;,over- .'J.a~.d1.,ape.'\,As his ideas for tbe spaces between

l!angin8 roof, supported on either arches, piers or the monuments developed be incorporated

, pilO_lis. This device would shelter the buildings hillocks, trenches for vehicular circulation, water

'from -run and rain wbile remaining open at the basins, ramps and (eventually) a panoply of signs

edges to catch the cool breezes and allow a and symbols illustrating the philosophy behind

variety of views, The para..g_[ was also capable of the city, IJ:>""~,were all orchestrated into a

a mulliplicity o(m-eallings, andLe Corbusier soon .!llrr~allandscap~in which foreground and back-

discovered poetic and cosmic possibilities in ground were ingeniously compressed to produce

sketches which sbowed water .sj)licing off roofs bizarre illusions of size and scale.

into basins. The idea could in turn be modified to While Le Corbusier was weighing up the over-

create'lQggias, verandas, scoops, porticoes, and all shape of the Capitol he was also trying to

curved or rectangular roofs hoverlng above deep establish appropriate forms and symbols for each

undercrofts of shadow. Brise-soieil screens of insritution, ~Iways on the basic theme of the

various kinds could be suspended, attached or parasol, A variant emerged in the project for the

built up in front, generating openings and entries l3o~tnor's Palace (1951-4), eventually not built

or allowing the eye to penetrate to the depths because Nehru found it undemocratic. It would

of buildings or even beyond them to mountains have dominated the site from afar witb its inrri-

and sky. Le Corbusier was to discover that the cate silhouette standing out against the blue haze

RI!!~l2Lf:qll!~~~Q. res_oJ!at~ across time, ~~calling of the hills. It was preceded by ramps, pools and

a number of symbolic motifs in the history of sunken gardens, and approached off-axis by car

Indianarchitecture. along a valley route; a similar means of access

Le Corbusier placed the Governor's Palace at was worked out for all tbe buildings. The image

the head of the Capitol, and thePaili_alm:Dt and was dominated by the upturned crescent on top.

'High C<'1_11r.!,!9l"er in the hierarchy facing one This was lifted up on four supports, creating a

another but slipped slightly off each other's axis; small theatre for nocturnal events above and a

they flanked the view to the Palace and expressed shelter for afternoon receptions underneath. The

the idea of a balance of powers between the shape seemed to gesture up towards the planetary .

judiciary and the executive. The-Secretariat realm and would have answered similar shapes in

was lodged behind and to one side of tli.ii'fluge the neighbouring constructions. Many images

hieratic box of the Parliament. It was as ifLe were compressed into it. Among Le Corbusier's

Corbusier had re-adapted the devices for dis- travel sketches are some comparing bulls' horns

tinguishing ceremonial from workaday aspects of to tilted roof structures open at the edges to let

government from his league of Nations scheme air pass. The buU was related 10 old animist

years before, but exploded them across a huge themes in Le Corbusier's paintings (stemming

platform, Throughout its evolution the plan of ultimately from the Surrealist obsession with

the Capitol bore comparison with the rectangles Minotaurs) as well as perhaps to Hindu icono-

and flanges in tension of an early Mondrian or graphy since Nandi the bull was a vehicle of

else with the sliding objects and subtle axial shifts Shiva; in this case, surely, the image also had to

of a Mogul palace Dr garden, Among Le Corbu- do with Le Cosbusier's nebulous belief that

India's future lay in a fusion of traditional rural values and m'odern progressi .... e ones - in another part of the Governor's Palace a curious sculpture was proposed which blended the bulls' horns with an aeroplane propeller, But the parasol was in turn an ancient symbol of state aurhcrity, found on top of Buddhist stupas and in a much later domical or arched form in Islamic monuments. The Governor's Palace, portrayed at the end of its pathways and pools, silhouetted dramatically against the sky, experienced both frontally and in torsion with its surroundings, recaptures something of the spirit of the Diwan-I-Kbas at Fathepur Sikri, a site that the architect had seen and admired. In this example, chattris or domieaL variants On the parasol were lifted at the four comers of the roofline on slender supports through which the sky could be seen,

The Symbolism of Chandigarh

202 (a, aait~ ccntur perasc

203(01 Gover gorh.! Corbu

204 if. Fathep lfith ce

20S (I~ lilt rOO boold LeCOI

The Symbolism of Chandigarh

The Symbolism of Chandigarh

'Wo Corbusier was certainly aware of a much and flI'esence. From the start he thought in terms

later attempt at a 'beneficent' imperial eclec- of concrete. The material was far from perfect for

ticism: that of Lutyens in the Viceroy's House in high temperatures but local know-how and

New Delhi. The main dome of this building materials did exist. Construction would be

declared the power and tolerance of the Raj labour-intensive, and Over the years the 'prophet

through the fusion of stupa and Classical dome, of the machine age' would be treated to the sight

rather as the city layout declared respect for the of hundreds of Indians ~rming over wooden

past by careful alignments with the various scaffolding tied with ropes, or wheeling tiny loads

ancient Delhis. The imperial hat was then of concrete up rickety ramps before packing the

imP,lm turned on its head in other parts of the stuff into between rough planks. The

bUtlding to become a scoop or water basin; in the resulti ,. were turned into richnesses in

gardens at the back a pretty Edwardian version of the creatid an instant patina that gave tbe

Mogul landscaping continued the aquatic theme. buildings an archaic feeling appropriate to Le

But the dome would not have been an appro- Corbusier's intentions. If the rude and powerful

priate emblem for Chandigarh ev~n if Le Corbu- shapes recall Mars~es and La Tourette they

sier had not regarded the form as.d~fu!!~·So it have equally to be seen in terms of the indigenous

was transformed into a counter-shape, a form mud architecture which the architect admired

that did not compress its forces downwards, but close to Chandigarh. It.was. typjcal_of~.!m that he

that sprang upwards, open and free. This was tbe shQl!I!!_I!§',vesolJght,l(l£'lmbine_~~_Yl~'!!Itioffolk emblem for the new, democratic, liberal and ~f!.~\t.h.!~~ _ars\Tact. f~~lJ1e~~.s~tc'?l!l11y-Liberated India - a shape that echoed the gesture Jllo=tal_t{aditioij~, Concrete allowed him to

of the 'Open Hand', Le Corbusier's symbol of Sculpt witb broad ochre surfaces gashed by

international peace, transcending politics, caste, openings of shadow. In the bold creative moves

religion, race. It was the very symbol that he made ip sketches between 1951 and 1953 a new

hoped to erect adjacent to tbe Governor's Palace language of monumentality was invented that where the two si)!louettes could be appreciated went well beyond the spindly limitations of the

~'~iroJ1l1a!l!'..Ogsly.'In transforming certain buildings International Style but without regressing into

• within the Indian tradition it was not the archi- ersatihistoricism. The finished Cbandigarh

, teet's aim to make obvious references to pam- monuments have the air nfbuildings that have

-I cular creeds and periods but to create a truly stood there for centuries: an architecture 'time-

. pluralist imagery touching on universal human less but ofits time' (Pls.151-4).

!: themes. The foreign and the indigenous, the new The High Court was the first structure to be

I: and the old were in this case blended into an erected on the Capitol and so served as a trial in

imagery for the new Indian identity around tbe realization of ideas. In parallel Le Corbusier

,oj pan-cultural ideals that were the opposite of evolved the most complex of the designs, that for

..\.. tyrannical. the Parliament. This began Life as a large, inward-

. Variations On the sheltering roof.,ideawere turning, shaded box preceded by monumental

",used in the other buildings as wel], Ute High arches and by an even larger arched portico.

·\COurJ,·for example, was.conceivedas-a huge Ancient Roman sources again come to mind (the

_<ipl'~~~i~~!!!!.~ '!~9.era gian.tro.o(stilildiTlg ona Pont du (lard, the basilicas), but gradually the

~n2 order' ofC9.J1cr"t.e pi~rs. These formed a idea was simplitied towards a trabeated solution

portico marking the asymmetrical entrance where with the sides behind brises-soleJl and the front

they were slightly curved in plan recalling the facing the plaza as a scooped portico. This ap-

subtleties of the Pavillon Suisse pilOfis or the peared to gesture across the Capitol and also act-

heroic supports under tbe Marseilles Unite, The ed as a huge gutter to sluice the monsoons. The

Supreme Court was to the left of the entrance on plan extended an old Corbusian pattern: a free-

its own, while the other courts spread out to the plan grid of supports with th.e main functional

right under the parasol behind a secondary sys- organs set down into it as curves. Le Corbusier

tern of sun-shading grilles. Massive ramps zigzag- was on the alert for rituaL. He wished to give ged their way laterally through the structure link- shape to the dominant role of the Assembly

ing to upper-level offices and offering vignettes of Chamber and to the dialogue between it and tbe the Parliament io the distance belweeinbe piers' Senate. Public involvement might be implied

(eventually the three supports at the entrance through surrounding forums in tbe hypostyle and

were painted red, yellow and green). The under- through the portico linked to the setting as a sort

side of the parasol was arched in a manner recal- of shaded stoa.

ling sketches that Le Corbusier had done forty As at Ronchap'p"and J,.~.!~!l~eJ~~,l&..Corbu,_ 4- 0

years earlier of the Basilica of Constantine . .IIl~ .si~ "xpl~~~:\l!~\1llYJei£!l_ ualities oflight an~

l!.\lgep'~asol_\V",! jl]ten.c!~~.tgcgIl:vey'!_he_:~~~!tt;!, lcl~kness in the Farlfament atLy'- .

.'E_~je"'tyilIi'd l'0wer_~It)1._eI~\V:,.!tJ!Q''"~_tb_e en-. sketcliess'lm'orednlysOI su moonligbt

L t~Jl~ r,e.C~r_~~sie!pl,!_ce9.:t!)O~.d _Li~t!~ ~.culpture penetrating the interiors in a ramatic way; there

of a snake rising from a water basin; his own were even obscure references to 'nocturnal

cw:iQtiiiKi~i:p"'!iltLo~oia.Cii@l.~¢i:ci!!r· ._. festivals'. As problems of lighting and ventilating

embo,tlying!!le prlrlClI'!e.oJ spiritual.power., the Assembly Cbamber came to the fore, the

Le Corbusier's dabblings in cosmology and architect broke' the room up through tbe roof as a

researches into tradition would have been all for tower (PI.3). 10 one version be added a spiral

nought if be had not bad the means to transform walkway as a stair for the window cleaners, but

ideas into sculptural forms of prodigious force this surely had a symbolic role too. The spiral

208 Asse a"

The Symbolism of Chandigarh

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~~~;~"~;:~>;~~~,~-f;:~.;~,,::~;.;,:,;.;_,~

209 Parliameet Building. Chandigarh, rcofscape,

210 (obovele!t} Ionia, Mantar, Delhi, early 18th century,

suggested growth and aspiration, and perhaps echoed Tatlin's Monument to the Third International (1919) or various revered minarets in the history of architecture (e.g. Samarra, Ibn Tulun). Later the tower was modified to take on a hyperboloid geometry inspired by cooling towers that Le Corbusier saw in Ahmedabad.

To observe the design process of the Parliament is to see customary elements of the architect's vocabulary,rtVested Wjth-fieiii revel.oT meaiiing. The'reference to a cooling tower might be seen as an appropriate image for Nehru's policies ofmodemization and industrialization, but these twentieth-century myths wereblended with ancient sacral images. In some ofhisH sketches Le Corbusier compared the Assembly space to the dome of Hagia Sophia with rays of light streaming down. Celestial connotations in hi. rethought dome were reinforced by the idea of having a single ray of light hit a column of Ashoka (the first Emperor of India) on the

The Symbolism of Chandigarh

211 (far I-m 0",," lndia, Sketchbook. (FondaLion Le Corl

Speaker's rostrum on the occasion of the annual opening of the Parliament. The axis of the room was aligned to the cardinal points, and so twisted from the geometry of bath building and city. Th~e_solar gestureswere supposed.to.remlnd. _~!!? .. !l!.~!h~. j~.:i!.SQn.oHhe,~un'. There is an echo of the Pantheon - a microcosm linked through its OCUlus to the planetary order - but the idea_a! ~ray'.of Ugh! .~,ri!!giTlg Its renewingpow~,:'t6_thc darkness and touching a shaft of stone is also

J?uiid,,,'Hipql\jemples:ln theParliamentthe I path through the main ceremonial door (with its \ various solar diagrams) takes one through a zone I

of transition into a hall of columns and then :

around the base of the Assembly funnel in a ' --

clockwise direction recalling ritual circum-

ambulation in ancient Indian religious -architec-

ture, One other association may have floated into,

Le Corbusier's memory in his search for an

appropriate image of congregation: the funnel-

like chimneys of Jura farrlljl!l)lSes of his youth,

I ,into which the whole family wOUld climb.

J Through a prodigious feat of abstraction old and '(. new were compressed together in a single

symbolic form (Pls.lS1, 152).

A similar procedure of analogy and transformation is sensed in the design of the top of the funnel with its tilted plaque, its up-turned crescent and its downward- turning curves. Le Corbusier let it be know!)._t!1!!t_h_f;_wanted the top to.be equipped for '@~:~lay of Iighis~, tbat ~ tblnkmggfjtasa sortQrnWJi:"'~. 'Ihi$.. ~$"!'l>i t~t he!1UiY have.baen.Insplred.hy.the, extraOrdinary abstract constructions at the .Jantar

E§~iarTii tielhiwbiffihaa:promp'f~d)ii;';-t~ - . exclaim' iilbis sketchbook: 'The astronomical lilstrij'ments of Delhi : .. They point the way: relink men to the cosmos ... Exact adaptation of ' forms and organisms to the suo, to the rains, to the air etc. this buries Vignola ... ' Planetary crescent paths can be found traced in stone in these prototypes, and Le C;;:,,,!p.l!~ie!:s_studil\s,fof., _~~tief~,_ ~";tU)~\s~tapes1ric s .and.monumental signs !ll!l.i_<:!,~,_t'?_at h!e.~a~J~~tedbll.the_c;jUYJ:s,Ql the sun at sols~ic.e_and equinox. The crescent curveWidergoes metamorphosis: it echoes the Open Hand, the Governor's Palace silhouette, bulls' horns, the chassis to carry the planets-in their cycle s. Time and again in the sketchbooks he returns to the form of the bull-cart wheel with crescent-shaped suspension resting on the hub. _Like the parasol, the wheel was an ancient image

212 (/<[<) Le Corbi India, sketchbook i

::h:1~~r:~::

1 r:~ .~ .

.... 1 • • I ..

. . I·..· I .

.. --~~ ~i':.:- .. .. ··IIID ...

"" ill ••

)

", .~i""''''-J

~'. 1,\" _,' J '

213 (abo ve I,) Building. Chi

214 (b<l.", r,} F. Schinkel, / Ber!in~ l827,

Tr-II

~f complex religious and political meaning that ~mHnde;;d'touch on cosmic and solar themes; it was also a modern Indian Nationalist symbol.

"The plan of the Parliament is an ideogram rich in intentions, It seems to be modelled on that of the Altes Museum in Berlin by Schinkel; at least both are variants on a fundamental type where a stoa or portico precedes transition towards a domical space and where the hierarchy between ceremonial spaces and more mundane functions at the fringes (at Chandigarh the offices) is clearly marked. But Le Corbusier rejects Neo-Classical

• symmetry in favour of a turbuient contrast between symmetry and asymmetry, rectangular and curved, funnel and pyramid, box and grid. The roof volumes mark the main chambers and enter a spatial dialogue that reaches out to mountains and sky. Within they battle with tbe grid, compressing space in a way inconceivable witbout the plastic intensity of Cubism. The day. to-day entrance is to the Secretariat side, two levels below plaza level (a valley allows these buildings extra accommodation downwards), The ramps slice back and forth in section, allowing diagonal views of the funnel descending into the hypostyle, whose concrete mushroom columns are lit soberly from mysterious side sources. One enters tbe main chamber and the space expands upwards but in a manner that does not detract from the function and focus of the room.

The portico of the Parliament blends the

_/.) -'-crescent tbemes with the functions of sluice and frontispiece. Once again the gestural action of this shape reveals its capacity to lunge over great distances, in this case towards the High Court

400 yards away. Seen obliquely, it points to the mountains. Head-on, the turbulence ceases and it becomes a wide, low horizontal. Like Ronchamp, the Parliament is a sculpture in the round that

21:5 The Secretariat, Chandigarh,

emits entirely different sensations from different points of view . The frontal approach suggests less a Classical portico than a Mogul audience

chamber of the sort that Le Corbusier had observed in the Red Forts of both Delhi and Agra. These were defined by grids of supports open at the edges for cross-ventilation and shaded from sun and rain by deep overhangs .. ~<::Ol'bu·

sier's solution responded to analogo"s issues with ~.i'iifaJTCirinlllitybUfiii' iIIe reriiiJnolo~y of his new '!p.9!angr;unm':\J:'. H« bridged tlie gap"oetween

-" East and West, ancient and modern, by seeking

~?!iH:~i:>iT~sporiitencesof principle. . ..

,,1 For the Chandigarh Secretariat Le Corbusier

\"" :<;,' ---''I- originally intended a skyscraper. 10 its second version this was like the tower he bad suggested for Algiers - textured with deep crates of brisesolei! which also functioned as balconies; the recently rejected United Nations Secretariat ,would have employed a similar system. But

,'despite the architect's eagerness to demonstrate i at last the 'correct' form for the skyscraper it

. gradually became clear that this was not the right : place as a tall building would have dwarfed the

ceremonial buildings, So tbe block was put on its ! side where it could act as a terminating barrier to '" the Capitol and as a backdrop to the Parliament.

, ."

216 (oppOS;,. .00.<) The commercial centre in Sector 17, Chendlgarh.

217 (oppOSite 0<1"..) Housjog in Sector 20~ Cbandigarh.

Even then its sheer hulk bad to be lessened by lowering.the ground level through excavation, TI?~~tiltl!tg slab was nearly 800 feet long and con_lain..ed_ eiglil~iiIf@i\f:Th~'C?riSffy~oiD"i!)~s b.e.tween,them.were.hidden behind a continuous screen otbri5eNoleil. TheM'Ocfui66!ndtlie" ieceiii~xperience of Marseilleiwere"botb a: help in balancing unity and variety, monumentality and t~e.h,\!man.scale, The fourth sub-block was varied in its f~de treatment and amplified in its apertures to express the presence of the ministerial offices, The full ~~t(ation system comprised ondulatoi~es~.atraleurs with insect screens as well as th4rlse-soleilfins, f\:!Q.vement-ofairwas ."!1~_Qur,aged·tiY.faos, but air-conditioning was considered too expens1ve. Besides, ~ Q>rbusier probably wished to demonstrate his natural dev'ccs-fordeiiiiig-with iiiti-Ciln.ate:in truth tbese have been oitlfp.Jtl)isui:ce~l'!. This 'enoriilO'i'S'office'bllilaffigIlad to deal witb the daily shifts of a huge labour force. Lifts and stairs were complemented by curved ramps sticking out from the slab like ears Dr handles. There was also a roof terrace affording sheltered places from

,which to enjoy the long views over landscape, city ~ and Capitll ... , .. _ "

It wasJane I?~ who initially suggested to Le Corbusiei tli'at he should set up a !9_w_o( signs, symbo~!)i~.!'!£!lj!~.!!ral_~n.<lllrb_ani.sEc JThl!~ljy: ~_h~~IJlQnic.spiral,!besigns.of tbe ,~()~~lor, the S shape signifying the 24·bour rise

and flilrofthe sun, curves showing the path ofthe sun-iii'equiiii:ixand solstice and, of course, the Open Hand rising above the curious 'valley of contemplation'. In addition Le Corbusier envisaged a curious sculpture of a broken ClaSSical column with a tiger advancing upon it: an image of the collapse of British rule and the reassertion of Indian identity. When the Governor's Palace was rejected, Le Corbusier decided to replace it with a 'Museum of Knowledge'; later still he conceived a 'Tower of Shadows' to stand between Parliament and Justice - his twentieth-century version of the J antar Man_tar.for registering sun angles on different-siz~r-50Ieil-, At the lime of writing, this last contraptio~ana: the Open Hand are in the process of construction, so the Capitol is in essential ways incomplete. But similar signs adorn both [he boldly coloured tapestries that Le Corbusier designed for the

High Court and the large enamel ceremonial door under the portico of the Parliament.

Intended as a popular art, the signs come very close to magniloquent kitsch. The reverent see in the Open Hand a pan-cultural significance, a

cross between a Buddhist gesture for dispelling

fear and a hovering Picasso Peace Dove, The

cynj9 see a grotesque baseball glove and 'the

IiCtlon pf a state art with no state religion behind

it'. Bu~~:£ilitmilcJ;;.took it very serio usly as an 'I emblem of universal harmony representing,

among other things, the belief that India might ;

lead a moral regeneration. The form had a most ~ complex genesis perhaps going back as far !,:s,the i Ruskinian moral symbolism attached to,fii trees '. 'L'~ in his youth, Le Corbusier is reported to'bave _/ 1 described the Open Hand as: i

J

The Symbolism of Chandigarh

... a plastic gesture charged with a profoundly human content.

A symbol very appropriate to the new situation of a liberated and independent earth. A gesture which appeals to fraternal collaboration and solidarity between all men and all the nations of tlIeworld.

Also a sculptural gesture .. , capable of capturing the sky and engaging tbe earth.

By the late 1950s there was enough above ground at Chandigarh for Le Corbusier and the world architectural press to begin to judge what the finished buildings might look like. Along with the other late works they played their part in encouraging a reaction agalese the steel and glass cliches of the previous decade: in the 19605 bold concrete l!'2r.ticp~ and piers became standard fare in city balls and cultural centres in many parts of the world. Meanwhile Le Corbusier turned to smaller buildings in Chandigarh such as the Museum and Yacht Club (PIs. 156, 1S8). The former was a red-brick box lifted up on pi/oris and top-lit through light troughs. Ramps rose to ODe side of the double-height lobby, guiding the visitor through the exhibition sequence, The building was a close relative of the museums for Ahmedabad and Tokyo. Like them it descended from tbe Museum of Unlimited Growth of the 19305. At Cbandigarh slight refinements such as the alternating system of piers and oval pilOlis (creating bays and a free plan simultaneously) were enhanced by sober lighting and tight proportional control. The Yacht Club was even

_, simpler, being a distillation of the 'rndian grammar' into a delicate, concrete-framed pavilion with free-plan partitions playing against the grid. The site was to Doe end of the lake that P.L. Varma insisted be built.

With lIS long, wide espl anade, its views to the mountains and its glimpses of the distant

The Symbolism of Chandigarh

silhouettes on the Capitol, this must be counted among the mOISt beautiful spots in Chandigarh.

It is still too early to come to conclusions about the urban qualities of Ch andigarb: for most criticisms there is an answer. If one side claims that it is an ill-begotten toy of neo-colonialism another replies that it is the benchmark by which later Indian planning must be judged; for someone wbo points to uniformity and rigidity somone else can be found to point to the shaded streets of the better-off sectors or to the splendid views of the mountains; the moan that the ar~~l!> ... are tC?O Fid~ is countered with the observ~!io_n .that Chandigarh is easily able to absorb its growing traffic; vague charges of being 'un-Indian' are met with the reminder that the place offers welcome relief from the filth and overcrowding of the traditional population centres. Thereis_ a.hnDl;t

. universa] !gre~men_tth_at Le Corbusier's principle Q.f d.iscte.~e_z()ningis_si!!g1!lar:l)dll-,!alclle.!l to tbe t&'!Ipl~ mixed.u~.andmixed"ec.o~o_mi_~s()f Indian life, and almost universal condemnation of the vapid, sun-baked spaces of the commercial centre in sector 17. Wbat was intended to be a modern version of a 'chowk' or bazaar area has come out as a bleak no man's land flanked by dead-pan rows of pllotis and brutally proportioned balconies. It seems odd that Le.Corbusier should not have devoted time to tbe.:'~tomach' 9f his anthropomorpbic city; Fry was sboCll:eato

, return later and discover how,bleakly'~hese

Lspaceshadtumedout. ,-_._ .. "\: .l".<' c

Whatever its faults, the extraordinary thing is that Chandigarh exists at all: the expression of a huge collective effort that was launched after strife and rraged y. In its early years of growth

the city has far outstripped the initial figure of 150,000 to approach the intended final population of half a million. It bas played a central role in

tbe economic transformation of the Punjab into one of the richest areas of India, a"p'ro.ces~

The Symbolism of Chandigarh

,

for filling the spaces between witbout fealizing that this would destroy a place that has a sort of magic in relation to mountains andsky. Arguably the buildings themselves are to~' grand to house the functions of a mere state capitllT." But then the original client waS not just the local bureaucracy, nor even just Nehru, it was a n<;wly emergent nationn] consciousness whicl(AAt~~d with the hints ofa new, post-colonial world order. Le Corbusier chose to celebrate this mood inquasisacral terms transcending limited political rhetoric and Chauvinism. The ideology that brought the

Chandigarh programme into being has slipped away, but the artist saw beyond these transient conditions to themes of longer-range human relevance. The Chandigarh monuments idealize cherished notions of law and government with deep roots: they span the centuries by fusing modem and ancient mytbs in symbolic forms of prodigious authenticity. Although recent in fabrication they possess a timelessness that will insure them. major place in the stock of cultural memories.

219 The Chandigr

achieved partly through industrialization and the mecbanizition of farming. This success brings problems in its wake. If the city goes on expanding as an industrial centre there is the danger that its positive qualities will be undermined by speculation, bureaucratic graft and lalssez-faire construction. The growth has also had its political stresses. In 1966 the Punjab was again divided, and the new state of Haryana now occupies half of the Parliament Building. At the time of writing Sikh aspirations towards independence are stimulating unrest in the Punjab with the threat of further divisions. As the idea of a pluralist, secular state takes increasing buffeting from various religious extremisms, the Open Hand still lies in prefabricated fragments, rusting in the grass, its messages dimly heard.

Le Corbusier's 'Indian grammar' has nOt always been a success in others' hands, and at Chandigarh the vocabulary has been spread very thin. Ye.! !b~_m.ster's . .work.and.pr.e~n.cl' have founded a modern Indian tradition of reafworth, ~~ilfain1;'t.a:r'¢hi@S of ~!ii1ii'~elike··B:ai~.islJ';"a . Doshi, Charles Correa and Raj ~al .. To them, and io an even younger generation, Chandigarh is a bold beginning whose lessons need transforming still further to the complex;ties of Indian reality, especially at the urban scale. Admiration for a forcef1:'l statement of.philosophy i~~~~.? by SU.P1C10nS of absolutism, and scepticism lIbout the values ot the Oxbridge elite that bro~g!lt_91aDdi!larh into being. In their search fo(iegiona(

-'iaeiiil~ they look for a greater accominoaation of s'oCiaJ and spatial ambiguities: The webs of streets in villages and the tight-knit structures and spaces of laisalmer have become the revered urban models.

.Like the city as a whole, the Capitol menuments excite ambivalence. Thosesqueamish about monumental statements of power are naturally left uneasy; they revert 10 'facile gestures

I \

' ... ~ ~;..,·f~