The Le Corbusier Centre, Chandigarh, India
PRESERVING CHANDIGARH HERITAGE
An Institution dedicated to the life, work and legacy of Le Corbusier – architect and planner of Chandigarh
– ‘The City Beautiful’
The Le Corbusier Centre was set up on October 6, 2008 on the occasion of the 121st birth centenary of Le Corbusier, to commemorate and preserve the work and legacy of Le Corbusier with specific reference to the modern architectural Heritage of Chandigarh. The Swiss-French architect used the office while conceptualizing the city almost six decades ago and now this old office in Sector-19 houses Le Corbusier Centre. The Centre displays and exhibits the life and works of Le Corbusier, so that tourists and future generations may be able to acquaint themselves with the rich cultural heritage of the city.
The Master Plan of Chandigarh was developed by Le Corbusier who also designed the Capitol Complex having architectural edifices and monuments like secretariat, assembly, high court, open hand, trench of consideration, martyr’s memorial, geometric hill, modular man, twenty four solar hours, tower of shadows and course of the sun and also established the architectural control & design of the main buildings of the city.
Chandigarh has been conceived as a living organism with close parallelism of functions. The administrative areas in the north comprising the secretariat, high court and assembly chamber is head, the education centre in the north east are limbs, the chief commercial and civic centre is the heart where the residential areas are analogous to the trunk to the organism. The network of roads and footpaths through which the circulation of traffic and population takes place is circulatory system. The spacious parks, green belts and other open spaces act as lungs of the city. The rivulet in leisure valley serves as spine.
