Overview

What is the relevance of the Chandigarh experiment today? Written by an esteemed scholar and former resident of the city, this fascinating book reevaluates Le Corbusier’s work in Chandigarh in terms of the pressing challenges of the present, in particular climate change, globalization, neo-nationalism, and information technology. Through a lively poststructuralist and postcolonial framework, this book explores issues of preservation, identity, meaning, and change, comparing how the Chandigarh we see today compares to the original plans and drawings. But this book also asks whether Chandigarh’s aesthetics, as well as the ethical tenets on which it was based, are still relevant to urban planning and architecture today. What lessons, if any, does the utopian ethos within modernism offer in the face of the climate crisis, rising authoritarianism, and the digital explosion? Via chapters focused on the hydrologics of the master plan, the symbolism of the Capitol buildings, and the archeology of the unbuilt Museum of Knowledge, this book makes the future-preservation case for Chandigarh as an ‘open’ work, a project that was set up by design to be ‘completed’ by others in times yet to come. Engaging and erudite throughout, this book will appeal to any student, scholar, or professional with an interest in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning.

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9781032447254

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Vikramaditya Prakash (BArch, Panjab University, India; MA, PhD, Cornell University, USA) is Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington, Seattle, with Adjunct appointments in Landscape Architecture, Urban Design and Planning and in Digital Arts and Experimental Media. Vikram is host of the ArchitectureTalk podcast and co-design lead of the conceptual design practice O(U)R: Office of (Un)certainty Research. His books include Chandigarh’s Le Corbusier: The Struggle for Modernity in Postcolonial India; Colonial Modernities (co-edited with Peter Scriver); The Architecture of Shivdatt Sharma; Chandigarh: An Architectural Guide; One Continuous Line: Art, Architecture and Urbanism of Aditya Prakash; Rethinking Global Modernism: Architectural Historiography and the Postcolonial (co-edited with Maristella Casciato and Daniel Coslett); and A House Deconstructed (co-authored with Mark Jarzombek). Vikram was recognized as ACSA Distinguished Professor in 2021.

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