ONESQKM CIVICCENTERS
CHANDIGARH | DOMINIQUE ST-PIERRE
Finally, Chandigarh was first plan with good social and spatial intentions. The idea of equality and individual rights could have made the city an example for other developments. The masterplan has elements that could still be relevant if we had to design a new city center. The mix of programs creates a small scale center within each sector, making every sector more autonomous. The great amount of green space and integration of landscaping elements is crucial to increase the urban quality of life. Despite this, Chandigarh was heavily criticized. What went wrong with this project? Some say the planners and developers didn’t expect the exceptional growth of the city. The rationality of the plan makes it inflexible and is unable to adapt to the changes of density. Therefore, there is no more space inside the city and slums started to emerge around it. That rationality of the plan also makes it hard for orientations because every district look the same. The equality of the sectors is good, but maybe it is important to create landmarks on each of them for orientation. In addition to that, the hierarchy of speed is good, but separating pedestrians and vehicle have already created some problems. We should instead try to create roads that combine car traffic with safe pedestrian and bicycle lanes. Chandigarh is a city where people want to stay. There is now some projects in the air to improve the flexibility or the quality of life of certain area. This pictures (Fig. 16) shows a proposition for a car-free sector. The streets have been transformed into pedestrian green streets. 12 There is four major parking lots at the four entry points. This promotes pedestrian and bicycle circulation, releasing space for greener spaces. This means that for them, the perfect sector has a mix of programs within it, provides a lot of green spaces and the principal way of circulating is by walking from one building to the other.
Fig. 16 Proposal for a coherent system of bicycle and pedestrian pathways by Henrik Valeur, sector 19 Source: http://www.henrikvaleur.dk/hv/projects.php
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