This thorough exhibit explains how the Indian city designed by Le Corbusier has become a thriving urban hub.
Chandigarh started out as a grand urban planning project dreamed up by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier at the beginning of the 1950s – but what’s become of it now? And how have three generations of inhabitants changed and adapted the Indian city to meet their needs? Enter ‘Chandigarh, 50 Ans Après Le Corbusier’, a new exhibition that plunges visitors into the heart of the current capital of the Pendjab region. Both a retelling of its birth and construction and a thorough examination of its future, the exhibit does a good job of explaining both how Chandigarh’s population has mushroomed – from 120,000 in 1961 to 1,200,000 in 2015 – and how the key issue for its current residents is striking the right balance between modernisation and preserving its heritage. Through original sketches, more recent architectural models and a film directed by Christian Barani, you get a real sense of the huge impact such large-scale urban planning has on a population.
TRANSLATION: HUW OLIVER
BY: VIRGINIE DUCHESNE