After India gained independence, Nehru sought to develop new architecture that represented modern India and broke from colonial styles. He commissioned plans for the new cities of Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar that featured open planning and equal access to amenities. Le Corbusier designed Chandigarh with distinct neighborhood sectors organized around public green spaces. Key government buildings like the High Court and Secretariat featured exposed concrete and pilotis. Nehru envisioned architecture that reduced social differences and projected India as a newly modern nation.

1. Nehru's Search for Suitable Architecture
Damini Bhardwaj , Varsha Mallya
Studio III- B
S.S.A.A

2. Partition Of India
Figure 2: Post-Partition Map Of India
Ref: http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/india/india-map-prepartition.jpg
Figure 1: Pre-Partition Map Of India
Ref: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/images/partition_map.gif
After India’s Independence, partition of India took place dividing the country into two parts. The
political and the religious conflict between India and Pakistan led to a highly volatile atmosphere.

3. Political Scenario (1947-1980)
Figure 3: Mahatma Gandhi
Ref:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/com
mons/0/03/MKGandhi.jpg
Figure 4: Dr. Rajendra Prasad
Death of the 1st President of India
Ref: http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-heroes/pics/drrajendra-prasad.jpg
Figure 5: Jawaharlal Nehru
Ref: http://www.wallpaperswala.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/09/Nehru-Ji.jpg
This period was dominated by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and can be
regarded as Nehru Years.

4. Nehru years was the time of political and social reforms.
Figure 6: Satellite ‘ Aryabhatta’
Ref: http://pib.nic.in/archive/50yrs/50phto/50l/space7.jpg
•
First Nuclear explosion at Pokhran (1974)
•
Firing of first rocket (1972)
•
Launching of satellite ‘ Aryabhatta’ (1975)
•
Bonded servitude was made illegal

5. Clients
Figure 5: Post-Partition Map Of India
Ref: http://www.wallpaperswala.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/09/Nehru-Ji.jpg
• Political leaders
• Religious organizations.
• New industrialists, Entrepreneurs,
Individual house owners.

6. Revivalism
It was an immediate architectural response to
the Independence of India.
Revivalism took many forms:
British colonial buildings were faced
with stucco and not stone.
• Replication of traditional forms .
• The abstraction of past forms.
Walter Granville's High Court of 1872,
on Esplanade Row, Kolkata, is a vast
building, standing on land once
occupied by the Supreme Court and
three other residences. It has red brick
facing with stucco dressings.
Figure 7: Walter Granville's High Court
Ref: http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/granville/2.html

7. - Colors chosen were different from the colonial palette. (creams &
whites). The new buildings were painted pink to look like sandstone.
Figure 8: Ashok Hotel, New Delhi
Ref: http://www.theashok.com/
Figure 9: Swami Malai Mandir, New Delhi
Ref: http://incredibleindiaphotogallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/07_MalaiMandir.jpg

8. Bhubaneswar
City plan from the book
Figure 10: City Plan of Bhubaneswar
Ref: Architecture and Independence
• Koenigsberger’s design laid the city out in a linear pattern with a central artery
forming a main spine to which neighborhood units were attached. It was
designed for the population 40,000.
• Neighborhood units had all the major amenities. Each unit was to house a
population for 5,000-6,000.

9. • It had a clear social agenda in accordance to Nehru’s
Policies: neither cast nor socio-economic were to exist
and gender equality and education were to be
stressed.
• By 1961, the population reached 40,000. The plan was
revised by Julius Vaz to accommodate eleven
neighborhood units instead of four units.
• Nehru did not want Bhubaneswar to become a “city of
big buildings” . It would accord with the idea of
reducing differences between rich and poor.

10. Chandigarh
Ref: http://www.tripadvisor.in/Tourism-g297596-Chandigarh-Vacations.html
Jawaharlal Nehru, decided to build a new city – Chandigarh as a capital
for the state Punjab after Lahore was lost to Pakistan.
He had envisioned this city to mark India’s entry into the modern world ,
would represent India’s clean break from the colonial rule of the British.

11. When India became independent, it was found that there were native no trained
professionals on city planning. Political leaders hired American architects- Matthew
Nowicki, and Albert Mayer to plan the city.
Figure 12: Chandigarh Nowicki plan
Figure 13: Le Corbusier plan
Ref: Architecture and Independence
Ref: Architecture and Independence
The project was handed over to Le Corbusier in the year 1951 by Jawaharlal Nehru.
Le Corbusier led a team that consisted of a French architect Pierre Jeanerette,
Englishmen Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew and about twenty Indian architects and
developed a new project.

12. Describing Chandigarh city plans .
Le Corbusier conceived the
master plan of Chandigarh
as analogous to human
body, with a clearly defined
Head (the Capitol Complex,
Sector 1),
Heart (the City Centre
Sector-17),
Lungs (the leisure valley,
innumerable open spaces
and sector greens),
Intellect (the cultural and
educational institutions),
Circulatory system (the
network of roads, the 7Vs)
and
Viscera (the Industrial
Area)
Figure 14: Plan
Ref: landlab.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/chandigarh-qt8.pdf

13. •The primary module of city’s design is a Sector, a
neighborhood unit of size 800 meters x 1200 meters.
•Each SECTOR is a self-sufficient unit having shops,
school, health centers and places of recreations and
worship.
•The population of a sector varies between 3000 and
20000 depending upon the sizes of plots and the
topography of the area.
Figure 16
Figure 15: Neighbourhood plan
Ref: landlab.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/chandigarh-qt8.pdf
Figure 17
Ref:landlab.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/chandigarhqt8.pdf
Ref:landlab.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/chandigarhqt8.pdf
View of typical Roads and Round-abouts in the city

14. HIERARCHY of GREEN AREAS
1.City Level Public Green
Space with Artificial
Water Body
2.Free- Flowing Green
Space, connecting the
entire site
3.Semi-Private Green
Areas for
neighbourhood pockets
4.Private Green Areas
for Residential Units
Figure 18: Plan demarcating green areas
Ref: landlab.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/chandigarh-qt8.pdf

15. The Basic Building Typology is
observed as extremely Rectilinear
with similar proportions.
Figure 19: Typology
Ref: landlab.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/chandigarh-qt8.pdf
In both the developments the
smaller individual Residential Units
are arranged around central
common Green Spaces, although
the shapes are different.
Figure 20: Typology
Ref: landlab.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/chandigarh-qt8.pdf

16. The Superior Court of Justice
Figure 21: Front View
Ref: http://www.slideshare.net/ctlachu/planning-of-chandigarh-by-le-corbusier

17. Parasol roof extending to form
arches
Full Height Entrance
Coloured Pillars
Ref:http://www.slideshare.net/ctlachu/p
lanning-of-chandigarh-by-le-corbusier
It consists of an L-shaped block framed by a concrete that in the shape of arches,
and that somehow establishes an reference to the covers of the havelis in Mughal
architecture.

18. This space between the double cover
offers a smooth ventilation in the
summer and protection during the rainy
season.
Figure 23: Ashok Hotel, New Delhi
Ref:http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_J0XsQeUu1tE/R5XstFDFjFI/AAAAAAAAEvA/5UwM0
Zyha9w/s400/DSCN6862.JPG
Figure 24: Painted Concrete columns dividing the High court from
the Supreme court.
Ref:http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_J0XsQeUu1tE/R5Xv6VDFjSI/AAAAAAAAEwo/lybwZ
v89d-E/s400/DSCN7154.JPG
Figure 25: Terrace
Ref:http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_J0XsQeUu1tE/R5Xv6lDFjTI/AAAAAAAAEww/mwsl2
5HEOOY/s400/DSCN7164.JPG
The building contains 8 high courts
and a supreme court .
Le Corbusier devised a set of outdoor
terraces, which now are used as
warehouses.

19. The Secretariat, 1958
Figure 25: Secretariat
Ref: http://www.slideshare.net/ctlachu/planning-of-chandigarh-by-le-corbusier

20. Roof Garden
Projected porticos
Figure 28: Front Façade
Ref: http://www.slideshare.net/ctlachu/planning-of-chandigarh-by-le-corbusier
Ramp enclosure
Square windows
Rough concrete
finish
Figure 27: Ramp
Figure 26: free Facade
Ref: Ref:http://www.slideshare.net/ctlachu/planningof-chandigarh-by-le-corbusier
Ref: http://www.slideshare.net/ctlachu/planning-of-chandigarh-by-le-corbusier

21. The Assembly Hall
Figure 29: Assembly Hall
Ref: http://www.slideshare.net/ctlachu/planning-of-chandigarh-by-le-corbusie

22. Rough concrete finish ramp
Figure 31: View of the ramp
Ref: http://www.slideshare.net/ctlachu/planning-ofchandigarh-by-le-corbusier
Figure 30: View from the road
Ref: http://www.slideshare.net/ctlachu/planning-ofchandigarh-by-le-corbusier
Concrete double roof

23. Modernist Architecture
Achyut Kanvinde: sought to create buildings that represented modern
technology and the machine age.
• Open plan, with clearly
separated ‘functional areas’.
•
The administration-cumlaboratory block is a perfect
rectangular form .
• Southern façade has sun shades
running across in a continuous
line.
• Continuous bands of glass
are flush with the wall on the
north façade.
Figure 32: The Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association building
Ref:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Ahmedabad_Textile_Industry%27s_R
esearch_Association_building_%2815_05_2006%29.jpg

24. References
1) Jon T. Lang , Madhavi Desai , Miki Desai. Architecture and Independence: The
Search for Identity - India, 1880-1980
2) http://www.slideshare.net/ctlachu/planning-of-chandigarh-by-le-corbusier
3) http://landlab.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/chandigarh-qt8.pdf
4) http://architecturalmoleskine.blogspot.in/2012/12/chandigarh-and-lecorbusier-ii.html