City’s connect with nature revisited

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 18

Prof Rajnish Wattas, former principal of the Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA), today delivered a lecture on ‘A brush with nature: Trees as elements of cityscape’ at Le Corbusier Centre, Sector 19, here.

He talked about the connection of the city with nature and architect Le Corbusier. He said, “If you start seeing city with an artist’s eye, you will see living sculptures. Behind the quest for green city, there is a lot of toil and sweat. Nowhere in the world, there is a city with this dimension and planning.”

He said, “With the advent of Mughals, the concept of Garden of Paradise was brought forth. The Pinjore Gardens is the closest resemblance of the same. It conveys that a man can transform nature into geometrical shapes.”

Praising the City Beautiful, he said, “It is not a garden city, but a city in the garden. After a little rain, magnificent mountains are visible and it is such an uplifting experience.”

Professor Wattas said, “When Le Corbusier was here, he wrote letters to his wife describing how beautiful the city is. He did studies on solar angles and need for shade.” He said earlier, Chandigarh was a dust ball and also talked about heritage trees of the city and urged that nameplates should be attached on trees.

He raised concern over vistas getting eroded and trees slowly dying out. He said chukrasia tabularis, commonly known as neem, was found in abundance in the city and flowering trees were disappearing.