Chandigarh : A Smart city in making is paying a tribute to its creator. A legacy of world renowned architect Le Corbusier, Chandigarh, observed the master architect’s death anniversary analyzing his significant contribution to the way modern cities are planned, his supreme talent, innovation, art and unique sense of architecture.
The cool evening calm, on October 9, around the symbolic Open Hand in Chandigarh’s Capitol Complex, was broken by melodious strains of music as experienced hands expertly strummed on Sitar, complemented by `tabla’. As the iconic Punjab and Haryana Vidhan Sabha, bathed in blue green light, loomed in the background, enjoying the specially organized sitar recital were admirers of Le Corbusier, gathered from around the world.
Among them was Jacques Sbriglio, from France, a renowned architect himself who has written a book on the legendary, Le Corbusier and William J R Curtis an architectural historian. Organised by the UT Chandigarh Administration, the musical evening, organised at Capitol Hill, with all Le Corbusier’s great works of architecture, the Vidhan Sabha, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Open Hand monument, lit up, was a perfect artistic tribute paid to the legendary architect.
Though Corbusier’s birth anniversary falls on October 6, Chandigarh was officially inaugurated on October 7, 1953 by India’s first President Dr Rajendra Prasad. At the time of the inauguration, Corbusier said, “A town is a mighty image that stirs our minds. Why should not the town be even today a source of poetry”.
A symposium was organised to reflect on Le Corbusier contribution to Modernism, as an overview – his myriad talents as an artist, architect, theorist and writer; and the synthesis of all these as manifested through his projects globally. The focus was on his work in Chandigarh and Ahmedabad in India and weaved together the varied strands of the multi-faceted genius’s creativity: his inventive, bold and imaginative architectural and urban planning responses to the diverse cultural, geographical milieus he worked in and the adaptations made there, to meet the challenges posed.
