Le Corbusier gets permanent space in Chandigarh

Calcutta News.Net
Monday 6th October, 2008 (IANS)

'Le Corbusier centre and museum' was inaugurated here Monday by the administrator of the city S.F. Rodrigues.

The centre, dedicated to Swiss-French architect who designed Chandigarh in 1950s, has been set up by the Chandigarh administration at the Old Architects' building in Sector 19, which was the office of Le Corbusier.

'This is the place where the great architect used to sit and conceptualise the master plan of the country's most well planned city. Now, students and scholars from all over the world can come here and do research on the works of Corbusier,' the nodal officer of this project Vidya Nand Singh told IANS.

The Le Corbusier centre in Chandigarh will be the sixth centre in the world and the second such in India after a museum in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Other centres devoted to Le Corbusier are Foundation Le Corbusier in Paris, France; Centre Le Corbusier, Zurich in Switzerland; Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, Canada; and Museum of Architecture and Design in Chicago in the US.

The centre has been divided into different sections where the archival records, various documents, plans, elevations, sketches and studies, maps and models, photographs and furniture have been kept.

'We have displayed documents pertaining to the inception, development and growth of the city beautiful and the Harappan findings in Chandigarh and photographs of different archeological findings in the city,' said an upbeat Singh.

In the documents section, there is a telegram dated Dec 20, 1950 announcing the signing of contracts with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, draft agreement made with Corbusier and various letters written by Corbusier to Indian leaders.

There is also a letter dated Mar 17, 1958 in which Corbusier is complaining about the indifferent attitude of authorities here.

Le Corbusier designed and constructed buildings throughout Europe, India (in Chandigarh and Ahmedabad in Gujarat), and one each in North and South America. He was an urban planner, painter, sculptor, writer and modern furniture designer.

In the research section of the centre, there are printed materials, publications, posters, archival records, reference and digital library. The library is connected with various international centres and foundations of Le Corbusier through internet.

Various articles like furniture, small carpets and other related things, either used by Le Corbusier or created in his time are also displayed here. There is a wooden bookshelf, wooden office table, and a steel and bamboo frame chair that were used by Corbusier.

The centre will be closed Monday and the entry has been kept free for the visitors between 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on all the other days.

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