The government of the state decided to build a new city at the foot of the Shivalik hills. Architects Albert Mayer and Mathew Novicki drew the initial plans in New York. When the latter died in an air crash in 1950, the work was entrusted to renowned Swiss born, French architect Edouard 'Le Corbusier' Jeanneret who created Chandigarh as a city of "Sun, Space and Verdure" to fulfill basic functions of working, living, and care of body and spirit....
In the 1950s, a unique opportunity to translate the Radiant City on a grand scale presented itself in the construction of the Union Territory Chandigarh, the new capital for the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana and India's first planned city. Le Corbusier designed many administration buildings, including a courthouse, parliament building, and a university. He also designed the general layout of the city, dividing it into sectors.....
Today, the city is home to more than 900 000 people living in harmonious conditions that are considered to be the best in the country.....
One can see architectural genius in the neat geometrical design of residential quarters, reinforced concrete structures and self-contained area layouts. Chandigarh is divided into 47 self-contained sectors. Each sector of the city is designed with its own shops, academic, and health care buildings, and places of worship, open spaces, greenery and the residential areas. Chandigarh is one of the best planned cities of India. Roads are pretty wide and spacious. It hasnt grown in a haphazard way as some of other Indian cities have.
The city is divided into four major work areas. In the north, the capital complex, consisting of the Secretariat, Legislative Assembly and High Court, with the hills as a background dominating the city. Sector 17, which is the city and district centre, houses the administrative and state government offices, as well as shopping malls, banks and other offices. The west contains the university, and institutions of engineering, architecture, Asian studies and medicine. Finally, the east zone, which is the industrial area of the city.....
1952–1959: Buildings in Chandigarh, India
1952: Palace of Justice
1952: Museum and Gallery of Art
1953: Secretariat Building
1953: Governor's Palace
1955: Palace of Assembly
1959: Government College of Art (GCA) and the Chandigarh College of Architecture(CCA)
[and of course the signature "open hand"]
