What Le Corbusier got wrong and right in his design of Chandigarh
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Re: What Le Corbusier got wrong and right in his design of Chandigarh
#2Thanks for the great post. I had no idea Le Corbusier was involved in the design of some Indian cities. I lived in New Delhi for a while and traveled around a bit. This makes total sense now. There is some really abstract architecture and grand spaces to be seen. Now I understand the influence. Thank you!
Re: What Le Corbusier got wrong and right in his design of Chandigarh
#3Thanks for the great post. I had no idea Le Corbusier was involved in the design of some Indian cities. I lived in New Delhi for a while and traveled around a bit. This makes total sense now. There is some really abstract architecture and grand spaces to be seen. Now I understand the influence. Thank you!
Chandigarh is pretty unique in this regard. Someone else can correct me if I'm wrong but I think it's the only city where a single modernist architect was allowed mostly unfettered control.
Re: What Le Corbusier got wrong and right in his design of Chandigarh
#4He also had a plan to destroy a bunch of Paris to make it car-centered and more "modern".
Be open to innovations but beware of modernists.
Re: What Le Corbusier got wrong and right in his design of Chandigarh
#5Thanks for the great post. I had no idea Le Corbusier was involved in the design of some Indian cities. I lived in New Delhi for a while and traveled around a bit. This makes total sense now. There is some really abstract architecture and grand spaces to be seen. Now I understand the influence. Thank you!
Chandigarh is pretty unique in this regard. Someone else can correct me if I'm wrong but I think it's the only city where a single modernist architect was allowed mostly unfettered control.
A good example of why we shouldn't give anyone unfettered control (with something that impact the lives of millions)
Re: What Le Corbusier got wrong and right in his design of Chandigarh
#6Thanks for the great post. I had no idea Le Corbusier was involved in the design of some Indian cities. I lived in New Delhi for a while and traveled around a bit. This makes total sense now. There is some really abstract architecture and grand spaces to be seen. Now I understand the influence. Thank you!
There are a lot of planned cities in India, and Pakistan.
Few know, but Islamabad is also began its existence as a 100% planned city. Pakistan invited C. A. Doxiadis to do the planning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinos_Apostolou_Doxiadi... . He was considered to be of Corbusier's calibre if not more, at the time.
Faisalabad was planned back in British time. And the now infamous Model Town, as the name suggests, too.
Dhaka, and Karachi were also supposed to get plans at around late sixties, but we all know how it went...
Diodiaxis left Karachi plan half finished when 1971 happened, and Dhaka had an initial burst of orderly development for a few years, but it was cut short after Mujib was murdered, and 20 years of instability followed.
Karachi, and Dhaka now are prime examples of "urban hells" in the world.
Re: What Le Corbusier got wrong and right in his design of Chandigarh
#7Thanks for the great post. I had no idea Le Corbusier was involved in the design of some Indian cities. I lived in New Delhi for a while and traveled around a bit. This makes total sense now. There is some really abstract architecture and grand spaces to be seen. Now I understand the influence. Thank you!
Chandigarh is pretty unique in this regard. Someone else can correct me if I'm wrong but I think it's the only city where a single modernist architect was allowed mostly unfettered control.
Brazilia in Brazil was the same thing with Niemeyer. But not sure how much of the actual city he did, or just the most iconic buildings.
ps. see comment below, it was the work of multiple architects
Re: What Le Corbusier got wrong and right in his design of Chandigarh
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chandigarh is pretty unique in this regard. Someone else can correct me if I'm wrong but I think it's the only city where a single modernist architect was allowed mostly unfettered control.
Brazilia in Brazil was the same thing with Niemeyer. But not sure how much of the actual city he did, or just the most iconic buildings. ps. see comment below, it was the work of multiple architects
Brasilia was the work of multiple architects, Lucio Costa was the main urban planner, while Oscar Niemeyer designed the most important government buildings.
Re: What Le Corbusier got wrong and right in his design of Chandigarh
#9He also had a plan to destroy a bunch of Paris to make it car-centered and more "modern". Be open to innovations but beware of modernists.
This type of destruction happened in parts of Stockholm, with the historic Klara neighbourhood being destroyed and replaced by roads and modernist/brutalist architecture.
It was apparently very difficult for people to speak up during the forced reloactions and demolishing, but in hindsight it's viewed a destructive act. Too late.
It's not like there wasn't any room for architectural experiments. Many suburbs were built at that time on empty land (with both good and bad results).
Re: What Le Corbusier got wrong and right in his design of Chandigarh
#10He also had a plan to destroy a bunch of Paris to make it car-centered and more "modern". Be open to innovations but beware of modernists.
This type of destruction happened in parts of Stockholm, with the historic Klara neighbourhood being destroyed and replaced by roads and modernist/brutalist architecture. It was apparently very difficult for people to speak up during the forced reloactions and demolishing, but in hindsight it's viewed a destructive act. Too late. It's not like there wasn't any room for architectural experiments. Many suburbs were bui…
Le Corbusier actually made plans for Stockholm as well. They were even worse. The whole Old Town of Stockholm as well as great parts of Norrmalm and Södermalm would have been lost. The raisinf of the old Klara and the related "modernization" was bad, but it could have been much, much worse if Le Corbusier had had his way.