The greatest architect of century
By M.N. Sharma

The world pays homage to Le Corbusier, the greatest architect of the century, on his 112th anniversary for revolutionising the planning and architectural concepts that will keep reminding mankind of his all-time greatness.

It was indeed a privilege to be associated with Le Corbusier and watch him from close quarters. He was a keen observer of life and events — present and past — that influenced his inquisitive mind and his creative instincts. Le Corbusier’s creative endeavours emanated from a passionately attentive painstaking study of the world, including contemporary reality, the heritage of tradition and the laws of nature. If one traces — beginning with each form each idea, that bears his imprint — the often baffling sequence of these operations, endeavouring in each case to determine the relationship between observation and creative vision, one finds scarcely an idea or form, however novel and however authentically his, that does not have its origin in some concreate observation, some fact recorded, some question posed. Le Corbusier’s total experience, observations and reasoning came into play while he gave shape to highly innovative forms that no one could pass by without a deep impact.

Le Corbusier was appalled at the teachings of the schools, set formulas and assumptions of divine right, and took upon himself — with his savings — to journey through several countries far from the schools, to be his own teacher. And most important all along the way he drew and sketched, thus beginning that task of deciphering the world with his pencil which was to last the rest of his life.

Greatly influenced by elements of nature, he was emphatic in his conviction that the sun is first and the foremost master and modern technique has brought a glass facade and a landscape of sky and greenary to be in harmony with natue.

Le Corburesier was not unaware of his place in history. By self-training, he was an environmentalist, architect, planner, sculpture, painter, poet, philosopher and a writer. Even though he influenced the world-thought on contemporary planning and architecture, he had to face many setbacks in his early years. He was totally disciplined and even during most disappointing periods of life relied on his convictions and inner strength and wrote in 1934: “The defeats of these past three years represented as many victories. Public opinion when aroused will force the same officials to change their attitudes”. His predictions came true and all his sketches and drawn proposals are published and are held in very high esteem. In 1964 Corbusier wrote: “I am 77 years old and my moral philosophy can be reduced to this: in life it is necessary, above all, to act and by that I mean, to act in a spirit of modesty, with exactitude, with precision. The only possible atmosphere in which to carry on creative work is one in which these qualities prevail: regularity, modesty, continuity and perseverance.”

Before designing any building Le Corbusier viewed the site to visualise the relationship of the structure and the site. The scale and the form was to him as important as the function — perhaps, even more. He made his statements in diverse materials — distinctively his own — innovative, dynamic and having timeless quality.

Thanks to the post-modern movement, that we now look at the works of the masters of the modern movement with a fresh vision. However hard we may try, it is difficult not to be inspired or influenced by the works of great masters. We revered Corbusier and observed him closely. His time was divided between work and work. He had no time to waste-every minute was precious. He never uttered a word or drew a line without a deep meaning. He was a very hard task master and yet, very considerate.

Le Corbusier was way ahead of his own time with his feet firmly rooted in the past culture and its true values depicted in the works of art and architecture. He learnt from the history and in turn, made the architectural history rich and inspiring. One feels abundance of diversity of different angles and contrasting perspectives predict his architecture with changing points of view and new tense views from every step taken inside the building.

Space, light and volumes are always there as basic elements in Le Corbusier’s creations. He remains a great sculptor in his paintings as well as architecture. His efforts in creating are borne out of belief in objective beauty and not out of any political or religious convictions.

Success and fame did not come to him easily and he had to pass through great many setbacks because of his ideals and strong convictions opposed to the established order. It must have been heartrendering for Le Corbusier to have been deprived of the opportunity to carry out the design competition he won for the League of Nationals in Geneva (1927), UN headquarters in New York (1947), UNESCO’s Secretariat in Paris and Palace of Soviets in Moscow (1931) for which he participated. But he continued relentlessly and in due course of time he began to get recognition the world over. The year 1950 was the high point in his career when he accepted the assignment for designing the new capital city of east Punjab that was named Chandigarh.

His name and fame put Chandigarh on the world map and in fact, Chandigarh has become a place of pilgrimage for architects. This city is a living laboratory for the application of new ideas — the results of which are of great value for the development of human environment.

Thousands of students of architecture, planning, interior design, paintings, industrial design, historians and critics do research on Le Corbusier and travel far and wide to experience his creations. Visitors are coming in increasing numbers to Chandigarh the same way as they go to the Acropolis in Athens, the Pyramids in Egypt, Piazza St, Marco in Venice or Panthe on and Collosium in Rome.

Le Corbusier revered Phidias and Michelangelo for their inspiring and timeless creations. He considered Michelangelo to be the man of the last thousand years just as Phidias was the man of thousand years before. Le Corbusier clearly put himself in the same category to be judged by posterity.

With the sudden death of Le Corbusier in 1964, after his heart stopped while he was swimming in the Mediterranean, we would like to believe that he was on one of his restless voyages of discovery and those extraordinary perceptive eyes were observing the ever-changing ebb and flow of waves at play.

The author is a former Chief Architect and Secretary, Chandigarh Administration.

‘Expressions need bigger space’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 5 — "Today everything is being taken over by technology and expressions need a much bigger space. And so with theatre. We have been trying to revive folk theatre for so long now that the whole process seems very pretentious and quite boring. We need to grapple with history and try and deal with it," said theatre personality M.K. Raina, in an interview here today.

Raina is in the city for a 10-day theatre workshop, being organised by Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi. For someone who has worked both in films and theatre and has also worked with some tribal theatre artistes, Raina likes to believe in the "changing and the dynamic world".

Counting the fruits of 50 years of India's Independence, he said, "We got terrorism, wars, weak sections becoming weaker, the rich becoming richer, and in the middle of all this, comes a big fat bull called globalisation. What we are dealing with today is a tremendously complicated structure. In the midst of all this, if we think that folk theatre will not change, we are shirking responsibility."

After having worked with Basu Chatterjee, Govind Nihlani, Basu Bhattacharya and Mani Kaul, and in the big and small screen, Raina is currently busy with two projects. His 52-episode tele-serial 'Bulbul Bagh', on Kashmir, is on the air on Doordarshan.

"The serial is typically flavoured and is like 'Malgudi Days'. It is not a propaganda serial as 'Bulbul Bagh' has my childhood memories, with the backdrop of terrorism. What I have tried to do through the serial is break the 'Kashmir Ki Kali' kind of a myth, since the state is not only about the Dal Lake and the house-boats," he added.

Not too forthcoming about his second project, a film script on the theme of an artist in a violent state, Raina said this project would use 'bhands' as metaphors of life and how they were not allowed to perform in a terrorist-ridden state. When asked about the production of this project, he remarked, "I have this myth about myself that when my projects are ready, money and producers will also be ready. This will not be a commercial film."

Raina said parallel cinema was always in a minority and so was the case even today.

"I could never think of myself as just an actor, concerned only with my make-up, my dialogues and my acting," he stated.

Raina is busy finalising scripts for two new plays, one for children based on Narayan Desai's book titled 'In Bapu's Ashram', and another on a book titled 'I am an Untouchable'.

10,000 face phone problem
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 5 — Close to 10,000 telephone subscribers in SAS Nagar have been facing a major communication problem due to their phones. During the past three days a majority of the telephones connected onto levels 67 and 26 have either been lying dead or the subscribers can only hear a ''beep'' sound.

Sources said this had happened as the telephones of these exchanges had now been directly connected onto the main exchange in SAS Nagar in the past three days. Before this these numbers were connected onto the telephone exchange in Sector 34 for further connectivity with the Sector 17 exchange.

Since this switchover was affected, subscribers of SAS Nagar had been thronging the complaint centres wanting redress of their grievance. In some cases a dialer from Chandigarh or another place wanting to reach a SAS Nagar number hears a recorded message, ''this number does not exist''. Still another can hear an engaged tone. Sources said some of the ''cards '' used in the telephone equipment were out of order.

Subscribers of the township have also lodged complaints, saying that they only hear a ''beep'' sound and no dial tone. Still others who have dial tone on their numbers cannot talk outside SAS Nagar due to the disturbance or the line gets disconnected as soon as the receiving party picks up the phone.

Most importantly the users who have the STD or ISD facility are feeling bugged that they are aware of the need to feed in new dynamic locking codes. This may be an oversight by the public itself as the department had inserted an advertisement a few days ago informing the SAS Nagar subscribers about the need to feed in new locking codes. Once the switchover was affected the old codes were automatically wiped out.

Poor amenities bane of PUDA houses
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Oct 5 — The list of complaints regarding poor quality of houses built by the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority is growing. The latest victims are hundreds of allottees of semi-furnished middle income group (MIG) houses in different parts of the township.

After having paid lakhs of rupees, the allottees have yet to get the basic amenities in the area. In case of plots in Phase X, the allottees have to pass through wild growth, mud and slush.

A number of allottees who were given possession of their houses in March this year are yet to commence construction as there is no approach road to their houses. Open spaces in the vicinity are covered with cesspools of water. Adding to their woes, the cost of the houses was raised by Rs 76,000.

Though the houses were allotted after nine months of holding of draw of lots, the allottees lament that the quality of construction is below the specifications. A visit to the area showed that the inner walls of some of houses were not strong enough to even withstand a push. In one of the unoccupied houses, a push from a stray cattle reportedly led to the collapse of a wall.

Mr B.N.Kotnala, President of the MIG ( Independent) Housing Welfare Society, said a number of sanitary items like drain pipes provided by PUDA had been stolen before the possession of the houses were handed over the allottees. He said the monthly instalment of Rs 7076 fixed for corner houses and Rs 6639 for other houses was unjustified, as under the social housing scheme as only those person were allotted the houses who were drawing Rs 4450 per month.

Harassment at the hands of the electricity department has also been alleged. An allottee, who did not want to be identified, said the electricity department was stressed for a temporary connection before being given a permanent one. He said those persons who did not require the temporary connection were being fleeced.

Street lighting and development of parks has also been demanded by the residents. A memorandum of demands was given to the Additional Chief Administrator (ACA) of PUDA, Mr Dipinder Singh. But nothing has been done so far, lament the allottees.