ONESQKM CIVICCENTERS
CHANDIGARH | DOMINIQUE ST-PIERRE
CHANDIGARH, LE CORBUSIER, 1952
DENSITY
Chandigarh is the only project of urbanism that Le Corbusier realized. It was planned for a population of 500 000 people. His masterplan is similar to Mayer’s proposal, but the geometry is more rational and orthogonal (Fig. 3). The plan is composed of 59 sectors of 800m x 1200m. Corbusier thought that the organic shape was a waste of space. Therefore, there is a strong influence of CIAM’s functional ideas. There is a separation of ‘living’, ‘working’ and ‘care for body and spirit’ areas.5 The architect saw the city as a metaphor of human body and is planned at the human scale. The city becomes a living machine. The capitol is the head of the city, where the provincial decisions are taken. The City Center sector is the heart, where most of the working and commercial activities take place. At the west is the University campus and at the east is the industrial area. These act as the limbs of the city.6 The plan consciously integrates existing landscape elements, like the major water stream that takes source from the north lake to the south. All the sectors are also crossed by continuous green spaces that acts like the lungs of the city (Fig. 4). A pedestrian can walk from south to north by using them.
F.A.R: 1,2 to 1,5 (approximately) Total Urban Population (2001): 808 515 persons Density (2001): 7,900 person/sq. km.4 Planned density for sectors 1 to 30: 40 persons / hectare Reality (2001): 64 persons / hectare 5
LEGEND 7 SPEEDS 7:
Finally, another principle of the CIAM used for this project is the segregation of circulation. The streets acts as the arteries for this living body. They are separated into seven speeds. V1 is the interstate road, and V7 are the pedestrian paths in the green spaces.
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V1 - Fast roads connecting
V4 - Meandering shopping streets;
Chandigarh to other towns;
V5 - Sector circulation roads;
V2 - Arterial roads.
V6 - Access roads to houses;
V3 - Fast vehicular roads;
V7 - Footpaths and cycle tracks