Chandigarh: Living with Le Corbusier

In the early 1950s, many in the architectural profession turned their gaze towards India, where an ideal modern city seemed to be becoming a reality. When star architect Le Corbusier and his team started work in February 1951 in Chandigarh, American planner Albert Mayer and his young principal architect Matthew Nowicki had already completed a land development plan for the site. The challenge Le Corbusier then faced was to demonstrate how a city designed from the drawing board could feel humane, functional and viable once built. Once the home of public officials, Chandigarh has become a vibrant garden city and a magnet for the booming Indian software industry. Attracted to the idea of a possible dialogue and contradiction between European architecture and Indian lifestyle, German ethnographer Bärbel Högner began photographing the city. Chandigarh: Living with Le Corbusier surveys Le Courbusier’s contribution to India’s first planned city, while simultaneously revealing Högner’s passionate interest and impeccable eye for architectural detail.