Le Corbusier: Chandigarh & the Modern City - Hardcover

Chandigarh, generally associated with the eminent architect Le Corbusier, has become an icon of modern city planning. It provided a new paradigm for planning in India and an inspiration for a new generation of Indian architects. Now, just over 55 years after its founding, the city holds many different lessons for planning and architecture. Although much work has been done on Le Corbusier's architecture and indeed on Chandigarh itself, a critical re-reading of the current city is still missing. This visually engaging monograph will be unique as it sets out, in images and essays, to look at the original ideas and subsequent changes in the city and what they might mean for current city planning and architectural theory and practice. The book revisits Chandigarh and examines its built and social form in terms of today's perspectives, reviewing the changes in the city and to the lives of its inhabitants and its architecture. The idea is to have an internationally known group of scholars, practitioners and critics look at the city through different lenses; to creatively speculate about the city and the way that its original conception has stood up to the pressures of becoming a contemporary Indian city. The notion of reviewing a city's performance, especially a city of such widespread importance, after two generations of existence is not common, and can offer lessons for other cities.