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Time to square away the town square

Thousands of years ago, the Greeks had their Agora, the city square, where Athenians participated in ‘demokratia’ i.e. debated political, social issues and to bought-sold their wares. A processional path led the eye to the grandeur of the Acropolis atop the hill. This was the birth of the ‘city’ as a model of human settlements.

Time to square away the town square

Much as Times Square is the heart of Manhattan, Sector 17 Piazza is that of Chandigarh — minus the colour and glitz



Rajnish Wattas 

“The whole city must be conceived mainly as a theatre for active citizenship.”

— Lewis Mumford

Thousands of years ago, the Greeks had their Agora, the city square, where Athenians participated in ‘demokratia’ i.e. debated political, social issues and to bought-sold their wares. A processional path led the eye to the grandeur of the Acropolis atop the hill. This was the birth of the ‘city’ as a model of human settlements. Then the Romans built their ‘forums’ on a more extravagant scale; and so it went on the history of urbanisation in the world.

The city has been always been more than just a conglomeration of inert buildings—it is a congregation of human minds and a cradle of civilisations. And they all had one central focal point — the city’s heart — where people interacted and enjoyed the social rub of the metropolis. From the Venetian grandeur of Piazza San Marco to Trafalgar Square in London and Times Square in New York, this central public space evolved over time in shape and character.

 In the Mughal-era Delhi, during Shah Jahan’s rule, Chandni Chowk was created as the public square, while the British opted for the more imperial Connaught Place.

With the current rate of rapid urbanisation of India, it is projected that nearly 600 million people (twice the population of USA), generating 70 per cent of India’s employment, will live in cities by 2030. In the present laissez faire development model, chaotic sprawls mushroom around city peripheries, making them soulless ghettos of either gated communities of builders’ fantasies’ or dilapidated slums. The left-over open spaces are usually choked with vehicles, shopping malls etc., totally disconnected from the less privileged sections of the society. Burgeoning corporate hubs such as Gurgaon and Noida and IT centres in Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune have grown by accretion in such ad hoc manner, without any fundamental town planning principles being followed.

Traditionally, most old European towns had a central square defined either by a clock tower or the campanile of a church as its landmark, where a number of streets converged. One such typical town square Piazza della Reforma in the small Swiss town of Lugano remains etched in my mind. A number of small alleys with shops ranging from the local butcher, tobacconist, baker, selling upper-end Swiss watches open up into a large cobbled-stoned court where outdoor cafes are alive with locals and tourists. In one corner there is huge chess board etched on the floor with big wooden chessmen to play with. It is not uncommon for citizens to stop by and join in a game!

While big cities may lack such intimacy, they have grand public spaces. Renaissance cities like Paris have their Place de la Concorde and Rome its Saint Peters — besides numerous other such monumental squares and iconic piazzas.

The Trafalgar Square is a memorable space. It’s the cobbled piazza dotted with sculptures, fountains and steps to sit on defined by the Nelson column in the centre. The imposing Greek columns of the National Gallery in the front and the surrounding symmetry of other neo-classical buildings bring order, harmony, monumentality to the public space.

Istanbul is a unique city that blends the best of both the Orient and the Occident, which reflects in its architectural skyline. The European quarters on the Western side of River Bosporus has its Taksim Square and is defined by buildings built in later era. With a number of cobbled-stones alleys with an oriental array of small shops and coffee places, the square has intimacy and liveliness combined with historicity imparted by the Monument of the Republic in the centre. 

In the older part of the city, the large Sultanahmet Square between the two historic monuments of Hagia Sophia and the imposing domes of the famous Blue Mosque, showcases life in Istanbul’s myriad layers of history. 

Though New York is sprawling in its spread and verticality, its central core, Manhattan, has a modern-day equivalent of a ‘town square’ in the famous Times Square. Though a compact urban space, it has a unique character. In the midst of the sky-soaring towers with styles ranging from classical, neo-classical to modern steel and glass slick towers — there emerges a small pedestrian’s paradise. Notwithstanding its showy ambience, the Times Square is the rallying point for collective sorrows and joys of Americans. 

In the Indian context the traditional chauraha or chowk with a clock tower or the statue of some national leader or god/goddess in the centre is ubiquitous. Similarly, in old-walled cities central open spaces are usually a maidan where community theatre like Ram Leela etc. is held.

Le Corbusier, the architect-planner of Chandigarh, deeply inspired by the Acropolis, located the Capitol Complex of Chandigarh: the seat of the Assembly, Secretariat, High Court and other monuments at its northern tip—setting the ‘sacred’ somewhat detached and aloof from the everyday functions of the city. The city’s official emblem, the Open Hand, stands juxtaposed between the huge 450-metres-long piazza between the Assembly and the High Court buildings. He visualised this space to be actively used for debate, discourse and people’s interaction on matters of the state and decision making. However, its remote location and the forbidding barbed-wire security cordon around; turned it into a VIP citadel, inaccessible to the common citizen for whom it was originally intended to be.

Though lately, with the city pushing hard for having the Complex declared as a Unesco Modern Architectural Heritage Site, it has been spruced up and made reasonably accessible to visitors. 

In this context, the mega event on June 21 marking the International Day of Yoga, when nearly 30,000 participants will perform yoga, will be, in a way, a belated recognition of the power of architectural monumentality as a classic urban space. How much of this helps in its reactivation and integration into people’s collective consciousness as their own domain and arena will have to be seen. But a huge gesture would have been made.

In comparison to the less frequented Capitol Complex, it is, in fact, Chandigarh’s Sector 17 that is its truly the city’s heart. It is here that people congregate for social and urban rub and experience its soul!

Unlike an elite, air-conditioned mall—this is socially an inclusive place, where mega brand stores co-exist with street hawkers — the masala bargains of an Oriental bazaar merge with the snobbery of the upper-cut!

What is at stake amid the unbridled, chaotic urbanisation that the country is currently experiencing is that built forms cannot be left to the market forces of ‘impatient capital’. Cities are crucibles of civilizations and the matrix of a society. A country like ours with multiple social-economical realities, the city fabric must have room for everyone.

And the town square is where the city talks to itself and to its citizens. Can the air-conditioned cocoons of the elite malls ever be the substitute?

  — The writer is a former principal of Chandigarh  College of Architecture 

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