CHANDIGARH

- City planning study

Submitted by :SOMIYA LUTHRA

CONTENTS

• An introduction to the city

• Unfolding the history
• About the architects vision
• The master plan
• concept development
• Sector –analysis
• conclusion
 CHANDIGARH -AN INTRODUCTION
 Since Punjab was divided into two Jawaharlal Nehru, decided to build a new city –
parts, the capital was left in Pakistan Chandigarh as a capital for the state Punjab after
therefore Punjab in India required new Lahore was lost to Pakistan.
capital. He had envisioned this city to mark India’s entry
into the modern world , would represent India’s
 The first master plan for the new clean break from the colonial rule of the British.
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.

 Le Corbusier was approached by Punjab

government and the prime minister of
India.

 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.
 CHANDIGARH- THE 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
 CHANDIGARH-evolution of PLAN
• 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.

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 in the year 1950.
 CHANDIGARH- THE HISTORY
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”
 A need for the capital
 Rehabilitating refugees
 A rich cultural legacy like
Why? Lahore
 A vision of the future
 A centre for governance
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".
SITE plains on which
 The gently sloping
SELECTION
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.
Albert MAYER
ALBERT Mayer: –the master
THE MASTER plan
PLAN
 Mayer was the first one to get the Chandigarh project
 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.
 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 death of Nowicki necessitated the selection of a new
architect for Chandigarh.
 It was the minister of planning who suggested le-Corbusier.
 Albert Mayer –the master plan
 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
Le Corbusier–the master plan
• In 1951, it was handed over 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 , A 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 followed.
• 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 : 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
Master plan : circulation
 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,V5,V6,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 V
are its-
 Human scale
 Self sufficient sectors
 Roads system
 Areas of special interest
 Architectural control
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 run only on V-1, V-2, V-3 and V-4 Corbusier’s conceptual sketch showing the v-road
Master plan : circulation
 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.
Master plan : PLANNING 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.
SECTORS
SECTORS
 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.
 Initially, 30 sectors were planned in Chandigarh, of which 24 are residential.
 The sector was conceived as an autonomous unit including housing as well as all
service needed for everyday life: schools, artisans, shops, leisure.

 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 plots ranging in dimensions from 75 sq. Yards to 5000 sq. yards.
SECTORS: basic planning

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 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.
SECTORS: building typology

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.
SECTORS: green spaces

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