INTRODUCING CHANDIGARH

Chandigarh, derives its name from a temple Chandi Mandir in the vicinity of the site selected for the city (deity Chandi, goddess of power), and a fort or ‘garh" beyond the temple, called Chandigarh..

Chandigarh was conceived as the capital of Punjab, in lieu of the lost capital at Lahore. But Punjab was divided a second time in 1966, and Chandigarh is today the capital of the States of both Punjab and Haryana. However, the city does not belong to either. Chandigarh is a Union Territory, administered by the Government of India.

Chandigarh belongs to its people. They love the city, and are proud of the quality of life it continues to provide.

The Story of Chandigarh

Chandigarh has become synonymous with a certain kind architecture, alongwith planned landscaping, not found in other cities of India, and not amenable to being strait jacketed. And so we begin the story of Chandigarh.

Initially the Government of Punjab approached American town planner Albert Mayer who along with architect Matthew Nowicki became the key planners for the new city. The master plan conceived by them had a fan-shaped outline filling the site between the two seasonal river-beds. At the northern edge of the city was the capitol complex against the panoramic backdrop of the Shivalik hills. The City Centre was sited in the middle, and two linear parklands ran from the northeast to the southwest. Mayer sought to create self-sufficient city, restricted in size and surrounded by green belts. Areas were clearly demarcated for business, industry and cultural activities. In August 1950, his co-planner Nowicki died in a plane crash and Mayer withdrew from the project.

This vision of Chandigarh, contained in the innumerable conceptual maps on the drawing board together with notes and sketches had to be translated into brick and mortar. Le Corbusier, eminent architect and urban theorist, was selected to carry forward this task. He retained many of the seminal ideas of Mayer and Nowicki, like the basic framework of the master plan and its components: the Capitol, City Centre, besides the University, Industrial area, and linear parkland. Even the neighbourhood unit was retained as the basic module of planning. However, the curving outline of Mayer and Nowicki was reorganised into a mesh of rectangles, and the buildings were characterised by an ‘honesty of materials’. Exposed brick and boulder stone masonry in its rough form produced unfinished concrete surfaces, in geometrical structures. This became the architecture form characteristic of Chandigarh, set amidst landscaped gardens and parks.