LE CORBUSIER'S CHANDIGARH "Give him a pencil, For he is not a writer of words, But an artist of drawings."
Le Corbusier, that French man, called by Prime Minister Nehru to shape Punjab's new capital "Chandigarh", was a man of drawings. "I prefer drawing to talking, For it is faster and effective."
It didn't take long for this foreigner to put himself in an Indian's shoes and feel the happiness we felt from being free from the struggle for independence. Chandigarh, a city planned by Corbusier, speaks of joy, spaciousness and openness, calling one and all to show itself as a symbol of unity. It depicts a city unfettered by the traditions of past and is a symbol of nation's faith in future. India, had already had, in New Delhi; a city lay out on geometric lines, but there it had been imposed from outside, by colonial power. At Chandigarh, this geometric order appears as an expression of India's own will to action in the modern world. One can hardly overestimate the psychological value of this dramatic break with the traditional order or disorder of the Indian city. In Chandigarh he applies the 7v's concept (v= voie, road) for fluidity in traffic flow. Starting with the very large interurban artery V1, it ends with the fine capillary network of V7 in green belt, which irrigates the different sectors. The focal point of the city and the major task in the planning of Chandigarh, was designing the capitol complex, the visual and symbolic focus of the town. It was a complex of government buildings, standing against blue silhouette of the lower Shivalik ranges on the Himalayan foothills. Comprising of the Secretariat, Assembly hall and the High court, the complex was an embodiment of spirit of exaltation, power and permanence experienced by the Indians on acquiring self government. Designed as a great pedestrian plaza the grid and the axis both give the capitol the much needed importance it requires, in the city's culture.