Journal for Geometry and Graphics 23 (2019), No. 1, 085--097
Copyright Heldermann Verlag 2019
Toward a New Capital by Le Corbusier -- A Synthesis of Images with Different Origins
Michio Kato
The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro City, 153-8902 Tokyo, Japan
kato@idea.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp
This study aims to elucidate and situate the design of Chandigarh by Le Corbusier among his whole creative activities. To accomplish the aim, I surveyed many documents related to Chandigarh. The result is as follows.
On architectural and urban design: (1) His sketch attached to his letter to Yvonne with the date February 26--28th, 1951, shows that his first image of Chandigarh was linked to the Himalayas and his first image of birth: a woman holding a baby. (2) I could confirm that his first city plan had a 7/7 square scheme based on an 800 m module. (3) He learned from Indian architecture as follows: (a) local properties: accommodation to Indian climate, (b) universal properties: grand cultures on a grand geometric scale.
On pictorial images: (1) I could confirm that his first sketch of Chandigarh in his letter to Yvonne and another sketch with the date March 3rd, 1951, had his first image of birth. (2) His serial sketches showing his second image of birth in Album Nivola 1 were linked with the first creation of Chandigarh, via a sketch among them with the date March 1st, 1951. (3) The serial sketches were linked with D3 fusion of "Poem of the Right Angle" after the first creation of Chandigarh. Finally I could define Chandigarh as follows: it is not only the creation of a new capital, but the creative play of different images, crossing over the boundaries among different genres, brought together under the context (light) illuminating the place.
Keywords: Le Corbusier, urban design, Chandigarh, poem of the right angle.
MSC: 00A67; 97M80
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