Corbusier dumped Nowicki’s UT plan, says ex-CCA principal

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, October 6

The two-day birth anniversary celebrations of Le Corbusier, the French architect, started today with competitions, debate and a talk by Prof Rajnish Wattas, former principal of the Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA).

Professor Wattas spoke on trees as an element of design. He said ICS officer AL Fletcher, who was not a town planner, wrote a brief for Le Corbusier and recommended for a garden city.

“Fletcher had travelled widely. He was not a town planner but gave an outline for a new city... Garden City was a movement in the 19th Century in the post-industrial phase,” he said.

He said the original architects for Chandigarh were Mathew Nowicki and Albert Mayer who were Americans.

“But Corbusier dumped their plan and said only donkey moves in a zigzag manner,” said Professor Wattas. Though, I would like to move in a zigzag manner,” he quipped.

“He was much connected to landscape. He was a student of art and used to go to mountains to sketch alpine vegetation.”

Prof Wattas said Corbusier’s landscape design used to be influenced from views framed from ribbon windows, landscape in immediate vicinity and architecture observed from distance. He was searching to make an ideal city and was Leonardo da Vinci of his time.

“Corbusier thought that rays should not get into eyes of motorists...Trees on roads dividing Sectors 7/8 and 8/9 form a green tunnel.”

He suggested that there was a colour coding in the design of Corbusier as different trees were planned for different roads.

Sketching event, debate mark celebrations

As a tribute to the Swiss-French architect, the CCA hosted a sketching event at the Capitol Complex and a debate at the college. The topics such as ‘Is Chandigarh already a Smart City?’, ‘Should high-rise buildings be a part of Chandigarh?’, ‘Vehicle-free zone in the city’ and ‘By-laws for the urban village in and on the periphery of Chandigarh’ were some of the topics. Many interesting issues were raised during the debate and the students were awarded cash prizes. This was followed by a presentation by Vikas Malhotra, zonal head, technical services department, JK Cements, on ‘Durability of Concrete’.