IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section A

Abstract

The line from imperialism and conflict, modernity, to post-colonial uneven geography defines many global cities. The addition of the concept-object city to this line reveals fissures in culture and development that hinder the future city. In Chandigarh, two important but seldom documented Sectors 22 and 17, not designed by Corbusier but now frozen components of a modernist oeurve, are more flexible and have potential to contribute to the growth of the city. The concept city, a representation of the ideal and inflexible by design, creates conditions for, and depends on, large scale uneven urban development challenging the plan’s legitimacy. Rigidity of heritage, resisting flexibility of hybrid use and incremental growth, is misplaced here where questions of originality, authorship, and culture define the city that isn’t new or radical. Masked by innovative housing types, Drew and Fry designed a 1947 English Town Plan for Sector 22 as the first built experiment. Corbusier’s major contribution of road networks exacerbates outdated concepts of transportation. The green belts of each sector, however, support pedestrian and cycle pathways, encouraged as part of Chandigarh Smart City. In Sector 17, a repetitive module bay defines the pedestrian commercial and civic zone and should support a flexible urban environment. However, single use commercial space, hidden behind surface parking, separates commerce from the working city. This paper discusses the complex origins of the city and rarely discussed sectors, rapid urbanization of the periphery and corresponding disuse of the center, and future possibilities within the plan for an open city.