HUMAN SETTLEMENTS - GENERAL

The definition of human settlement is as given below:

―The fabric of human settlements consists of physical elements and services to which these elements provide
the material support. The physical components comprise shelter, i.e. the superstructures of different shape,
size, type and materials erected by mankind for security, privacy, and protection from the elements and for his
singularity within a community; infrastructure, i.e. the complex networks designed to deliver or remove from the
shelter people, goods, energy of information. Services cover those required by a community for the fulfillment of
its functions as a social body, such as education, health, culture, welfare, recreation and nutrition.‖
Human settlements means the totality of the human community - whether city, town or village - with all the
social, material, organizational, spiritual and cultural elements that sustain it. The fabric of human settlements
consists of physical elements and services to which these elements provide the material support. The physical
components comprise,
Shelter, i.e. the superstructures of different shapes, size, type and materials erected by mankind for
security, privacy and protection from the elements and for his singularity within a community;
Infrastructure, i.e. the complex networks designed to deliver to or remove from the shelter people,
goods, energy or information;
Services cover those required by a community for the fulfillment of its functions as a social body, such
as education, health, culture, welfare, recreation and nutrition.

ELEMENTS OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

These elements always interact with one another. A human being has some invisible spheres around him.
These spheres are the spheres of the senses like touch, smell, sight, hearing and also supernatural or spiritual.
The spiritual sphere is directly proportional to his intellect. People interact with one another by direct interaction
of these spheres. Human habitation requires a certain amount of overlapping of these spheres, and the planning
of habitation would mean, social planning‘. Human desires and endurances have remained the same throughout
the years and manifestations of which have changed by evolution.

GROWTH AND DECAY OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS - GENERAL

Primitive man lived in caves, tree-holes and treetops and fed himself on plants, fruits roots, animals and water,
directly collected from nature, without much effort on his part. When his number increased and his food
requirements became enormous he came out of the forests to live in the plains, to cultivate and make more food
materials. Availability of water was the main criterion for selecting land for cultivation and habitation. NATURE
MAN SOCIETY NETWORK SHELL
This happened according to scientist, about 10,000 years back and that was the beginning of human
settlements, when man made houses to live in and worked for his food. Thus it was a transition from cave to
village. Protection from the vagaries of climate and wild animals was the main purpose of a house, rightly called
a shelter. He built houses with whatever materials were available near about him, like mud, wood, reeds
boughs, leaves and what not. For better protection and mutual help he used to live in groups, surrounded by the
cultivated lands, which invariably were selected where water was available throughout the seasons.
This gave rise to villages or small human settlements, all of them near perennial fresh water sources like rivers,
and lakes. Villages were also located on sites offering natural protection of elevated hills & terrains, islands and
peninsulas. Wherever natural protection was lacking barricades and moats surrounded them. Later, when
transportation of men and materials became necessary, seacoasts and riverbanks were selected for
settlements. As we learn from history, early civilization spread along the fertile valleys of the Nile, tigres,
Euphrates, Indus rivers etc. where water, food and transportation were at hand.
In all settlements, there were both natural and man-made elements like hills, valleys – buildings, roads etc. each
settlement had its own definite boundaries. They were scattered throughout, especially along riverbanks and in
plains, fed by rivers. Inter – relations and inter-actions between settlements, both near and far off, developed
gradually and it gave rise to social, cultural, political, economic and many other institutions
Conflict between men and environment started when man began to change the environment for better
convenience and better comfort. This conflict is a continuous process, and is continuing with all its ramifications
supported by science and technology.
Man being aggressive in nature, did not easily adjust himself to be part of a self-disciplined community.
Personal and group rivalries flared up within settlements. Survival of the fittest was the order of the day. The
winner assumed the role of a leader and maintained discipline. When the leader gained more and more power
and strength, several settlements came under him. He himself assumed titles of king or emperor. To protect
himself and his kingdom, he wanted an army and a safe place to live. For this he established non-agricultural
settlements, exclusively for himself, his army and the people around him. Such settlements were fortified and
moats built all around, for additional protection from attacking enemies. People from the villages, whose main
occupation was agriculture, began to migrate to such urban centers, to get better employment and better
wages. Further, the developments came out of the forts and moats, to accommodate more people and this gave
rise to bigger settlements, what we call towns and cities.
Socio-economic and socio-cultural changes, as well as developments in science and technology influenced the
life styles of the people and their quality of life. In the process, some settlements, perished, may be by war,
floods or drying up of water sources and some other prospered becoming larger and larger, like our present day
giant cities which we call metropolis, mega polis etc. this makes human settlements a part of history and every
settlement has a history of its own.
The fundamental human needs, wherever one lives and whichever natural environment one has, are food,
clothing and shelter apart from air & water. Shelter use to get the lowest priority from the very beginning of
man‘s existence. Till the recent past, shelter, especially in small settlements, was not a serious problem as the
shelter requirements were quite simple and limited. There was no difficulty in getting a piece of land, either
owned or rented.
They constructed their own houses with mutual help, making use of locally available materials and using their
own houses with mutual help, making use of locally available materials and using their own labour.
The harmful impact of intensive urbanization, consequent to the industrial revolution, accelerated deterioration
of the living environment. But in spite of all the efforts to improve the living environment in human settlements,
the challenge of poverty, congestion and insanitation still remains in cities throughout the world. Man had made
unprecedented progress during the current century in the fields of industry, Education, Health, Communication,
Transportation etc. as a result of spectacular achievements in science and technology. But it is a paradox that
the majority of the world‘s population still does not have a shelter providing minimum privacy, and protection
against the elements. The struggle for shelter still continues. A significant reason, for this lag is the population
explosion followed by urban explosion.

EVOLUTION Of HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

The evolution of human settlements is a continuous cyclic process from the smallest, the room, to the largest
possible, the universal human settlement. The process are born, develop, decline and die which can be
compared to plant and animal which are everywhere in this universe.
Settlements may have an initial structure, which only allows for a certain degree of growth, but nothing excludes
the possibility of an expansion and transformation of this structure, which will allow them to surpass the initial
structural limitations. The human settlements have no pre-determined death, though there is death in their
activities, there will be born of another where the active exists. .
The evolution of human settlements can be divided into five major phases:
1. Primitive non-organised human settlements (started with the evolution of man.)
2. Primitive organised settlements ( the period of villages - eopolis - which lasted about 10,000 years.)
3. Static urban settlements or cities (polis - which lasted about 5,000-6,000 years.)
4. Dynamic urban settlements (dynapolis - which lasted 200 - 400 years.)
5. The universal city (ecumenopolis - which is now beginning.)

Primitive human settlements

Non - organised settlements

The man began to modify Nature and to settle temporarily or permanently in different location. Probably began
with fire, they went on to animal husbandry and the domestication of grazing animals; afterwards came
deforestation and agriculture, and with it, permanent human settlements.
Man had settled first in natural shelters such as hollows in the ground, hollow trees or shallow caves, before he
began to build his own primitive and unorganised habitat. After first exploiting natural formations and
transforming them into dwellings, by various changes and additions, he began to create shells independent of,
and unrelated to, pre-existing natural forms and their boundary were within certain limit beyond which the
settlement had no link and transportation.
For example observing the level of agriculture communities. The communities take up a smaller area where
they are agricultural, and a larger one where they are hunting and cattle-breeding communities. Their nucleus
under normal conditions is in the center of gravity; or of security problem, in the safest place in their area, or
even beyond their area of cultivation.
There are no transportation and communication lines between the communities. If we look at these primitive
non-organised communities on a macro scale, there consists of a nucleus which is the built up part of the
human settlement, and several parts which lead out into the open, thinning out until they disappear – either
because nobody goes beyond certain limits of the community or because these trips take place so seldom that
they would not be placed on the same scale of densities. There is no physical lines connecting this primitive
settlement with others; there are no networks between settlements.
Organised settlements

Man, some ten to twelve thousand years ago, began to enter the era of organised agriculture, his settlements
also began to show some characteristics of organisation. It required time and acquisition of experience in
organising the relationship between man and man, man and nature, and finally expressing these relationships
through cohesive forms of settlements.
In initial the human had one-room dwelling in circular form, to organise the relationship of his community with
other communities he expanded his dwelling by placing many round forms side by side, then elongated to
elliptical ones and at some point came to conclusion and adopted the rectilinear forms. Due to the loss of space
between them, they developed more regular shapes with no space lost between them. The evolution reached
the stage at which a rectilinear pattern develops into a regular grid - iron one.
In Nature evolution work towards a compression of circles and the gradual formation of polygonic systems, the
clearest form of which is the hexagon. In evolution of human settlements we see two courses:
• On the micro-scale, where man must divide the land, construct one or more shells (rooms and houses), and
circulate within a built-up area (neighbourhood), the solution leads to a synthesis at a right angle;
• On the macro-scale, where man must own and use space but not build it, and circulate within it, although to a
much lesser degree than before (usually non more than one movement to and fro every day), man
continues to follow the course of nature towards hexagonal patterns.

During this era of the development of human settlements the patterns or regional distribution of the settlements
differ depending on the phase of evolution and the prevailing conditions of safety, the population still small, the
villages can be found in the plains, near the rivers and near the sea. When the population becomes dense, new
patterns develop, and the villages come over to cover the entire plain on the basis of the small hexagonal
pattern and the hills and the mountains on a larger hexagonal pattern. The development of land cultivation, the
population might be larger, but would still be smaller than that of the era of large population and full exploitation
of the land, when it would reach five hundred thousand or even one million.

Static urban settlements

At some point 5,000 or 6,000 years ago, the first urban settlement appeared as small cities in a plain or as
fortresses on hills and mountains. As settlements grew in size, man came to realise that the principle of the
single-nucleus was not always valid in the internal organisation of the total shells of the community, at this single
nodal point, which was adequate for the village and for small cities, no longer sufficed. The first thing to happen
was the expansion of the nucleus in one or more directions; it was no longer limited to the settlement's center of
gravity.
Example: The small settlement of Priene, in ancient Greece, where the central nucleus expanded in two ways:
first in a linear form along a main street which contained shops that would normally be clustered in the central
agora, the secondly through the decentralisation of some functions, such as temples. In larger cities additional
nodal points and central places gradually came into being within the shells of the settlements - a phenomenon
that is unique to human settlements.
Dynamic urban settlement
Started in the seventeenth century and became apparent only a century later in all probability, it wall last for
another 100 or 200 years until we reach the next phase that of the universal settlement. In the dynamic urban
phase settlements in space are characterised by continuous growth. Hence, all their problems are continuously
intensified and new ones continuously created.
Dynamic settlements, created as a result of an industrial technological revolution, multiplying in number and
form, and now being created at an even higher rate. The evils described in them are the evils of yesterday
which are being multiplied today in a very dangerous manner. This makes the dynamic settlement completely
different from any other category of settlements and a real threat to humanity itself.
Example: London - atmospheric pollution may be so severe as to account for 4,000 deaths in a single week of
intense "fog". Hydrocarbons, lead, carcinogenic agents, deteriorating conditions of atmospheric electricity -- all
of these represent retrogressive processes introduced and supported by man.
The man's position is dangerous in the dynamic settlement, this can be shown through the following graph.

Dynapolis:
• First expansion of the urban settlement.
• 30 miles in diameter.
• All part of the land it covers is not sterilised.
• The microorganisms in the soil no longer exist.
• The original animal inhabit ants have largely been banished.
• Rivers are foul and the atmosphere is polluted.
• Climate and microclimate have retrogressed.
The first dynamic urban settlement - the early Dynapolis. This is the phase when small independent human
settlements when small independent human settlements with independent administrative units are beginning to
grow beyond their initial boundaries. From the economic point of view this development is related to
industrialisation, and from the technological point of view to the railroad era, which first made commuting from
distance points possible.
The settlements expands in all directions, instead of spreading only along the railway lines creating new islands
of dependent settlements around railway stations, as during the phase of the early Dynapolis. The city is
breaking its walls and spreading into the countryside in a disorgnised manner.

Metropolis I Dynametropolis:
The next phase of dynamic settlement is of metropolis, which incorporates several other urban and rural
settlements of the surrounding area.
The few metropolises from the past became static following a period of dynamic growth, then declined and died.
This was to a certain extent, true of ancient Rome in its last phases and Byzantine Constantinople - which
disintegrated to such a degree that the mobs in the streets became uncontrollable and sometimes succeeded in
imposing their will on the government. From the economic, social, administrative or technological point of view,
the fate of the historical metropolises has been dynamic growth, a static phase, and then death. To base our
experience on the history of cities, we must recognise the fact that a static phase for a metropolis is the prelude
of its decline and death. In such a case this should be said as a dynamic metropolis, after losing its momentum
for growth, becomes negatively dynamic.
To calculate the number of metropolises attributed to the effect of the railway and to the effect of the automobile,
we will find the latter to be much greater, out of all proportion to the number of the former.
Dynametropolis, continuing its course towards becoming a megalopolis.
Megalopolis I Dynamegalopolis:
The area on a large scale including more than one metropolis and many other urban settlements and it cannot
be static.
A megalopolis has the same external characteristics as the metropolis, the only difference being that every
phenomenon appears on a much larger scale. It is characteristic that all phenomenon of the development of
human settlements up to the metropolis shown on a 100 sq.km. Scale, for megalopolis would be 1,000sq.km.
Universal human settlement: Ecumenopolis
Regardless of whether dynamic settlements are simple (Dynapolis), or composite (metropolises and
megalopolises), they have been growing continuously during the last centuries and this is apparent everywhere
at present i.e. the whole Earth will be covered by one human settlement. The population explosion, will be
definitely be the most decisive factor in the next phase of human settlements.
SIR EBENEZER HOWARD (1850-1928)
A well-known sociologist, who after studying the industrialist evils in Britain gave the concept of ‗Garden City‘, It
soon became the landmark in the history of town planning. He had an idea which he set forth in little book
entitled ‗To-morrow‘, published in 1898 which later republished under the title of ‗Garden City of To-morrow. He
explained his idea of ‗Garden City‘ by an impressive diagram of The Three Magnets namely the town magnet,
country magnet with their advantages and disadvantages and the third magnet with attractive features of both
town and country life. Naturally people preferred the third one namely Garden City. It made a deep impression
in the field of town planning.

GARDEN CITY
A town designed for healthy living and industry.
Town of a size that makes possible a full measure of social life, but not larger
Land will remain in a single ownership of the community or held in trust for the community.
Not a colony, but a complete working city of population about 30,000
A large central park containing public buildings
Central park surrounded by a shopping street
Central park and shopping street are surrounded by dwellings in all directions – at density of 12 families /
acre
The outer circle of factories and industries
The whole is surrounded by a permanent green belt of 5000 acres
The town area is of about 1000 acres

In 1899, the garden city association was formed.

In 1903 – Letch worth started, 35 miles from London, town area: about 500 acres, designed for 35,000 persons,
3,000 acres of green belt. By 1947 it had about 16,000 populations and about 100 factories.
In 1920 – Welwyn started, 2400 acres, 40000 persons design capacity. By 1947, it had about 18,000 population
and 70 factories.
By keeping the land in single ownership, the possibility of speculation and overcrowding would be eliminated
and the increment of value created by the community in the industrial and commercial (shops) sets would be
preserved for it-self.
It was a thorough going experiment based on middle-class consumers cooperation
Howard‘s general principles, including the communal ownership of the land and the permanent green belt have
been carried through on both cases, and the garden cities have been a testing ground for technical and
planning improvements which have later influenced all English, American, Canadian and Australian planning,
particularly in housing.
PATRICK GEDDES
A Scot who has been called the father of modern town planning, Geddes did much of his pioneering work in
the Old Town of Edinburgh, having made his married home there in 1886.
Geddes‘ name and spirit are imperishably associated with Ramsay Garden and the Outlook Tower, both in
Castle hill.
Geddes was concerned with the relationship between people and cities and how they affect one another.
He emphasized that people do not merely needed shelter, but also food and work, the recreation and social
life. This makes the house an inseparable part of the neighbourhood, the city and the surrounding open
country and the region.
The town planning primarily meant establishing organic relationship among ‗Folk, place and work‘, which
corresponds to triad (Geddesian triad) of organism, function and environment.

FOLK WORK PLACE

i.e. organism i.e. function i.e. environment
(Social aspect) (Economical aspect) (Physical aspect)
―Cities in Evolution‘ – published in 1915 – essence of the book – city beautiful movement and too many
small schemes here and there like garden cities were only poor examples of town planning.
In this book he coined the term ―Conurbation‖ to describe the waves of population inflow to large cities,
followed by overcrowding and slum formation, and then the wave of backflow – the whole process resulting
in amorphous sprawl, waste, and unnecessary obsolescence.
True rural development, true urban planning, true city design have little in common and repeating the same
over all the three was disastrous and economically wasteful
Each valid scheme should and must embody the full utilization of its local and regional conditions
Geddes was the originator of the idea and technique of Regional survey and city survey
The sequence of planning is to be:
1. Regional survey
2. Rural development
3. Town planning
4. City design

These are to be kept constantly up to-date

In 1911 he created a milestone exhibition, Cities and Town Planning, which was studied appreciatively not
only throughout Britain but also abroad. From 1920-23 he was Professor of Civics and Sociology at the
University of Bombay, and in 1924 he settled at Montpellier, in France.
He died there in 1932, having been knighted that year.
The Outlook Tower Interpreter‟s House - Index Museum - Sociological Laboratory
Patrick Geddes took over the building formerly known as ‗Short‘s Observatory‘ in 1892.
From the Prospect Roof of the Outlook Tower are spectacular views across the Firth of Forth and the
surrounding city region.
Positioned at the top of the Edinburgh‘s High Street, it still holds the camera obscura, which refracts an
image onto a white table within, for study and survey. A mirror at the top of the dome picks up images and
reflects then through a lens which in turn focuses the picture onto a white surface as on a film in a camera.
The tower was conceived as a tool for regional analysis, index-museum and the „world‟s first
sociological laboratory‟. It represents the essence of Geddes‘s thought - his holism, visual thinking, and
commitment to understanding the city in the region.
He said of it: ‗Our greatest need today is to conceive life as a whole, to see its many sides in their proper
relations, but we must have a practical as well as a philosophic interest in such an integrated view of life.
Hence the first contribution of this Tower towards understanding life is purely visual, for from here everyone
can make a start towards seeing completely that portion of the world he can survey. He can also grasp what
a natural region actually is and how a great city is linked to such a region.‘
Now the tower is home to the Patrick Geddes Centre For Planning Studies, where an archive and
exhibition are housed.

PATRICK GEDDES IN INDIA

He came to India in 1915 at the invitation of Lord Pent land, the then Governor of Madras. He gave his
expert advice for the improvement of about eighteen major towns in India.
He laid emphasis on ―Survey before plan‖ i.e. diagnosis before treatment to make a correct diagnosis of
various ills from which the town suffers and then prescribe the correct remedies for its cure. These are the
physical and social economic surveys.
He was the first man who introduced the sociological concept in the town planning. Before coming to India,
he had successfully overcome the horrors of Edinborough slums.
LEWIS MUMFORD
Although French geographer Jean Gottman (1961) is credited for introducing the term, it was Mumford (1938)
who first elaborated the concept. His description was based on a revised version of an idea his mentor Geddes
had advanced in his Cities in Evolution (1915). Geddes had put forward an outline of the six stages of city
development, from polis to necropolis.

In Culture of Cities Mumford modified this scheme by including an earlier stage represented by eopolis,
the village community, and combining two of later stages of Geddes, parasitopolis and patholopolis into
tyrannopolis. So in this new scheme, city development originated with the rise of the village (eopolis), it
evolved into the polis as an association of villages and kinships, and resulted in metropolis, an association of
polis. The later three stages of city development, megalopolis, tyrannopolis and necropolis represented the
decline of the city.

In Culture of Cities Mumford regarded megalopolis as the beginning of decline: at this stage of its
‗development‘ ―the city under the influence of a capitalistic mythos concentrates upon bigness and power. For
Mumford the aimless expansion of the metropolis into megalopolis was an expression of a drive for capital
accumulation: everything must become rational, big, methodical, quantitative and ruthless. Megalopolis
facilitated the repression and exploitation of working classes by regimenting them and by making life
increasingly insecure and volatile. This gives rise to a new class conflict. As the conflict intensifies in
megalopolis, an alliance of land-owning aristocracy, speculators, financiers, enterprises, industrialists increase
their interest in controlling the urban space.

Mumford observed the transformation of the metropolis into the ―shapeless giantism‖ of the megalopolis in
Culture of Cities. By 1961, however, for Mumford, understanding megalopolis required understanding the
origins of the mass suburb. In City in History the revised chapter on megalopolis is now preceded by a new
chapter on suburbia.

Although the most recent interpreters assumed that the suburb is a new phenomenon, Mumford argued that it is
as old as the city itself. For example, the city of Ur had a ring of houses surrounding it. The Greek and Roman
cities as well as medieval cities always had small huts, gardens, villas surrounding them. It would be an error to
regard suburbanism as a mere reaction to the crowded and polluted industrial city.

th th
The 18 century city witnessed the rise of the aristocratic suburb while the 19 century witnessed the rise of the
bourgeois suburb. In both aristocratic and bourgeois suburbs, to have enough wealth to escape the city
became a mark of success. The country life became a romantic ideal where the free soul met nature. For
them the city became merely a place where their capital was concentrated and accumulated. The new utopia of
suburb proposed in effect to create an asylum in which the upper classes could overcome the chronic defects of
civilization while still commanding at will the privileges and benefits of urban society. The retreat from the city
had hygienic and health advantages but it also represented a retreat from the oppressive rules, manners and
regulations of an urban society.

Yet for Mumford, the ultimate outcome of the suburb‟s alienation from the city happened in the twentieth
century with mass production of housing. Mumford said: ―In the mass movement into suburban areas a new
kind of community was produced, which caricatured both the historic city and the archetypal suburban refuge:
a multitude of uniform, unidentifiable houses, lined up inflexibly, at uniform distances, on uniform
roads, in a treeless communal waste, inhabited
by people of the same class, the same income, the same age group, witnessing the same television
performances, eating the same tasteless pre-fabricated foods, from the same freezers, conforming in
every outward and inward respect to a common mold, manufactured in the central metropolis. Thus the
ultimate effect of the suburban escape in our time, ironically, a low-grade uniform environment from which
escape is impossible.‖

Mumford argued that unfortunately this empty ideal that attracted the masses did not meet a credible
counterpart or alternative. Instead, the high density, concrete slabs, “filing cabinets for humans” as Mumford
called them, captured the imagination (if as such can be said to exist) of planners and policy makers. Mumford
called attention to The British planner Raymond Unwin whose dictum ―Nothing Gained by Overcrowding‖
illustrated that early in the century the traditional industrial city designs were seemingly utilitarian but in effect
very costly.

Nevertheless, Mumford argued, the planners and policy makers also failed to see what was attractive in the
suburbs and what they seemingly provided. The suburb was a neighbourhood unit. The suburb helped to
recreate a new consciousness of something that had been lost in the rapid growth of the city: the sense of
neighbourhood. The early neighbourhood fostered new associations and the rise of civic responsibility in the
absence of formal municipal governments.

As such, the early ideas of the suburb approximated the conditions required for citizenship in the Greek polis:
leisure, detachment from base occupations, concern for public goods. With the rise of the motor car and the
vehicular traffic dominating the suburb returned to its original weaknesses: snobbery, segregation, status
seeking and political irresponsibility. The suburbs are ―...no longer held together either by the urban magnet or
the urban container: they are rather emblems of the ‗disappearing city.‘ Just as our expanding technological
universe pushes our daily existence ever farther form its human centre, so the expanding urban universe
carries its separate fragments ever farther form the city, leaving the individual more dissociated, lonely,
and helpless than he probably ever was before. Compulsory mobility provides fewer, not more
opportunities for association than compulsory stability in the walled town‖

Residential densities of about one hundred people per net acre would provide usable private gardens and
encourage small public inner parks for meeting and relaxing. “If we are concerned with human values, we
can no longer afford either sprawling Suburbia or the congested Metropolis…”

Mumford argued against those who justify the megalopolis as the final or the inevitable form or urban growth by
arguing that they overlook historic outcomes of such concentration of power. Mumford argues that the myth of
megalopolis gives legitimacy to modern accretion of power. The persistence of overgrown containers such as
Berlin, Warsaw, New York, Tokyo are concrete manifestations of the dominant forces in our civilization. The fact
that the same signs of overgrowth and overconcentration persist in both communist and capitalist societies
shows that these forces are deeper than prevailing ideologies. Mumford criticized academics for their vacuous
predictions of urban growth concentrating on statistics, accusing them for ‗slavery of large numbers.‘ Ultimately
―Whether they extrapolate 1960 or anticipate 2060 their goal is actually ‗1984‘‖

Mumford traced the rise of the giant metropolis directly to the rise of new classes in the industrial city with their
insatiable appetite for expansion. In the industrial city of the nineteenth century the creed of the bourgeoisie was
laissez-faire and free enterprise but with the growth of an immense productive economy and a consumption
economy, the bourgeoisie abandoned its belief in the free market and appropriated state institutions for
protection and subsidies. The rise of the metropolis
was a symptom of this tendency toward monopoly and concentration of great numbers. By the twentieth
century, the metropolis ―…brought into one vast complex the industrial town, the commercial town, and the royal
and aristocratic town, each stimulating and extending its influence over the other‖. The metropolis was an
embodiment and expression of a new stage in capitalism in which industrial capital and class was among other
equally powerful classes and forms of capital.

Mumford argues that massive accretion of power and concentration of numbers necessitated the rise of
bureaucratic administration and management. The metropolis became a form dominated by a new trinity:
finance, insurance, advertising. ―By means of these agents, the metropolis extended its rule over subordinate
regions, both within its own political territory and in outlying domains‖

The metropolis became an arena for accumulation of different forms of capital: the banks, brokerage
offices, stock exchanges essentially serve a collecting point for the savings in the entire country, centralizing
and monopolizing the use of money. Similarly, the values of the real estate in the metropolis were secured by
the continued growth of the metropolis, thereby benefiting financial institutions. In order to protect their
investment and continued profitability, banks, insurance companies, mortgage brokers encouraged further
concentration and the rise of land values in the metropolis.

The monopoly of cultural capital was also a mark of the metropolis. The effective monopoly of news media,
advertising, periodical literature, and the new channels of mass communication, television and radio gave
authenticity and value to the style of life that emanates from the metropolis. ―The final goal of this process would
be a unified, homogeneous, completely standardized population, cut to the metropolitan pattern and conditioned
to consume only those goods that are offered by the controllers and conditioners, in the interests of continuously
expanding economy.‖ This constituted a control without kingship. The metropolis became a consumption
machine. The princely ritual of conspicuous consumption became a mass phenomenon.

To call the overgrown metropolis, aimlessly expanding, megalopolis is to give legitimacy to a sprawling giant.
“These vast urban masses are comparable to a routed and disorganised army, which has lost its
leaders, scattered its battalions and companies, torn off its insignia, and is fleeing in every direction.”
With his historical insight Mumford could not bring himself to believe that megalopolis was a new form of city.
Megalopolis was for him the death of the city, a stage leading to necropolis. ―As one moves away from the
centre, the urban growth becomes more aimless and discontinuous, more diffuse and unfocussed, except
where some surviving town has left the original imprint of a more orderly life.‖ In megalopolis ―The original
container has completely disappeared: the sharp division between city and country no longer exists.‖
Although all living organisms are purposeful, goal-seeking, and self-limiting, the modern economy seeks
limitless expansion, and the metropolis is an expression of its aimlessness. The metropolis produces motor cars
and refrigerators galore but has no motive to produce magnificence: great works of art, handsome gardens or
untrammelled leisure.
―But if the costs of metropolitan congestion are appalling the costs of de-congestion are equally formidable. In
the United States, with the eager connivance of municipal authorities, an ever-larger part of the population is
spreading over the countryside, seeking, as we have seen, the conditions
for homelife, the space, the freedom of movement, that have become impossible within the central core, hoping
too, but vainly, that the lower land values and taxes of the outlying areas will remain permanent even after the
necessary civic improvements have been made. And all over the world the same sort of urban dispersal is now
taking place, at an accelerating rate.‖ The emergence of new forms of association, clubs and societies.
―But the fastest rate of growth has been in the outlying areas; and, to enlarge the whole scope of the urban
problem, provincial towns and regional centres, which would often boast better housing, more ample park
space, and more accessible recreation areas than the big city have themselves become the focus for still
further metropolitan growth. These towns begin to display the same environmental deficiencies, the
same unbalanced budget, the same expenditure on glib mechanical planning remedies instead of on
positive human improvements, that their larger historic rivals boast. Thus the new megalopolitan form is fast
becoming a universal one.‖

In 1938 Mumford had argued that the trend toward megalopolis had to be stopped. It would be nothing less than
a revaluation of values of modern culture: mastery of nature, the myth of the machine and ceaseless expansion
of capitalism. A regional framework of civilization that would correspond to this revaluation would be necessary,
nurturing the vitality, density, vigour and diversity of the city while maintaining access to the countryside in
symbiotic relationship with it. By creating the regional city the historic balance between the city and the
countryside would be restored. ―It is hopeless to think that this problem is one that can be solved by local
authorities, even by one as colossal and competent as the London County Council. Nor is it a problem that can
be successfully attacked by a mere extension of the scope of political action, through creating metropolitan
governments.‖ Rather, “The internal problems of the metropolis and its subsidiary areas are reflections of
a whole civilization geared to expansion by strictly rational and scientific means for purposes that have
become progressively more empty and trivial, more infantile and primitive, more barbarous and
massively irrational….This is a matter that must be attacked at the source…”
By 1961, the prospects didn‘t look good: “Our present civilization is a gigantic motor car moving along a
one-way road at an ever-accelerating speed. Unfortunately as now constructed the car lacks both
steering wheel and brakes, and the only form of control the driver exercises consists in making the car
go faster, though in his fascination with the machine itself and his commitment to achieving the highest
speed possible, he has quite forgotten the purpose of the journey. This state of helpless submission to the
economic and technological mechanisms modern man has created is curiously disguised as progress, freedom,
and the mastery of man over nature.‖
CLARENCE A. PERRY
One of the earliest authorities to attempt a definition of the neighborhood in fairly specific terms was Clarence A.
Perry.
He said ― The underlying principle of the scheme is that an urban neighbourhood should regarded both as a unit
of larger whole and as a distinct entity in itself. There are certain other facilities, functions or aspects that are
strictly local and peculiar to a well arranged-Residential community.
They may be classified under four heads:
(1) The elementary school
(2) small parks and playgrounds
(3) local shops and
(4) residential environment other neighbourhood institutions and services are sometimes found, but there are
practically universal.

He laid down the fundamental elements on which he intended the neighbourhood unit should be based size,
boundaries open spaces, institutional sites, local shops and internal road system. Its six basic principles were:
The size should be related to the catchment area of an elementary school.
The residential area should be bounded on all sides by arterial streets; there should be no through
traffic.
There should be ample provision of small parks and play areas.
There should be a central point to the neighbourhood containing the school and other services.
District shops should be located on the periphery, thus serving approximately four neighbourhoods.
There should be a hierarchy of streets facilitating access but discouraging through traffic.
DOXIADIS, CONSTANTINOS A
Constantinos A. Doxiadis, the son of Apostolos and Evanthia (Mezeviri) Doxiadis, was born in 1913. His father,
a pediatrician, was Minister of Refugees, Social Welfare and Public Health and organized many welfare
services, especially for children. He graduated as Architect-Engineer from the Athens Technical University in
1935 and obtained his doctorate at Charlottenburg University, Berlin, one year later.
In 1937 he was appointed Chief Town Planning Officer for the Greater Athens Area and during the war (1940-
1945) held the post of Head of the Department of Regional and Town Planning in the Ministry of Public Works
while also serving as a corporal in the Greek Army. During the Occupation he was Chief of the National
Resistance Group, Hephaestus, and published a magazine called "Regional Planning, Town Planning and
Ekistics," the only underground technical publication anywhere in occupied. At the time of Greece's liberation in
1945 he left the army with the rank of captain, and went to the San Francisco Peace Conference as a member
of the Greek delegation. In 1945 he also served as Greece's representative to England, France and the United
States on the problems of postwar reconstruction.
From 1945 to 1951 Doxiadis was one of the prime leaders in restoring Greece to a normal peacetime existence,
first as Undersecretary and Director-General of the Ministry of Housing and Reconstruction (1945-48), and
subsequently as Minister-Coordinator of the Greek Recovery Program and Undersecretary of the Ministry of
Coordination (1948-51). During these years he was also head of the Greek Delegation at the UN International
Conference on Housing, Planning and Reconstruction (1947) and head of the Greek Delegation at the Greco-
Italian War Reparations Conference (1949-50).
In 1951 he founded Doxiadis Associates, a private firm of consulting engineers, with a small group of architects
and planners, many of whom had worked with him on the Greek Recovery Program. The company grew rapidly
until it had offices on five continents and projects in 40 countries, acquiring its present legal form as DA
International Co., Ltd., Consultants on Development and Ekistics, in 1963. In 1959 Doxiadis founded the Athens
Technological Organization and in 1963 the Athens Center of Ekistics. From 1958 to 1971 he taught ekistics at
the Athens Technological Organization and lectured at universities all over the United States as well as at
Oxford and Dublin.
In 1963 and 1964 he served as representative of Greece on the Housing, Building and Planning Committee of
the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in New York and was chairman of the Session on Urban
Problems at the UN Conference on the Application of Science and Technology for the benefit of the less
developed areas held in Geneva in 1963.
During his lifetime Doxiadis received several awards and decorations, both civil and military and this year one
posthumous award, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Gold Medal for 1976.
His awards and decorations are as follows: Greek Military Cross, for his services during the war 1940-41 (1941);
Order of the British Empire, for his activities in the National Resistance and for his collaboration with the Allied
Forces, Middle East (1945); Order of the Cedar of Lebanon, for his contribution to the development of Lebanon
(1958); Royal Order of the Phoenix for his contribution to the development of Greece (1960); Sir Patrick
Abercrombie Prize of the International Union of Architects (1963); Cali de Oro (Mexican Gold Medal) Award of
the Society of Mexican Architects (1963); Award of Excellence, Industrial Designers Society of America (1965);
Aspen Award for the Humanities (1966); and Yugoslav Flag Order with Golden Wreath (1966).
In the last years of his life Constantinos A. Doxiadis was ravaged by a particularly debilitating, terminal disease
(Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as 'Lou Gehrig's disease) which led to gradual complete paralysis,
over three years. This, he fought with great courage and dignity, writing to his last day, and making detailed
notes of the progress of his disease, so as to help future researchers. He died peacefully, at home,with his
family, at 11am, June 28, 1975.

LE CORBUSIER
In the early twenties, Le Corbusier realized that many cities around the world were on the brink of
an urban implosion due to poor design, inadequate housing and inefficient transportation. He
studied these problems and advised bold new solutions.
His theories helped shape the planning of many cities of the world, and the influence they exerted
on a new generation of architects and planners is legendary.
o He conceived plans for Algiers, Nemours, the university city of Brazil, Buenos Aires (Argentina),
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Barcelona (Spain), Geneva( Switzerland), Stockholm (Sweden) and
Antwerp (Belgium)
His plans for cities were the result of a detailed analysis of three major urban factors – roads,
housing and open spaces.
He felt that roads should be arranged on the ‗grid – iron‘ pattern with minimum crossings.
Consequently, segregation of different forms of traffic was inevitable.
He recommended skyscrapers for commercial and residential purposes, surrounded by large open
spaces or parks.
He claimed that on an average nearly 90 percent of the ground area of his modern city would
consist of open spaces encompassing residential areas. He called his city ‗One Great Park‘ with a
lot of greenery around the buildings.

LA VILLE CONTEMPORAINE (CONCENTRIC CITY)

‗The city of Tomorrow‘ for 30,00,000 people was proposed by Le Corbusier in 1922, which was based on four
principles :
1. Decongestion of the centers of cities
2. Augmentation of the density
3. Enlargement of the means of circulation
4. Increase in the number of parks and open spaces

The ville contemporaine consisted of three zones: the central city, a protected green belt and the periphery
containing factories and the satellilte towns where their workers lived.
The central city featured a rectangle containing two cross axial super-highways. At its heart was a siz-level
transport interchange, a meeting place of underground and main-line railways, road networks and at the top, a
landing platform for ‗aero-taxis‘. Around that point were 24 crucifrorm skyscrapers made from steel and glass,
serving the city‘s cicic and commercial needs.
These buildilng cover less than 15 percent of the central area‘s ground space, would be raised on stilts (pilotis)
so as to leave panoramas of unbroken greenery at ground level. The general impression was less that of
parkland in the city than of a city in a park.
The ville contemporaine generated considerable interest as a holistic conception of the future city, but equally
attracted critical comment. Fierce criticisms were directed at the class based conception of life that it embodied,
since Le corbusier envisaged different classes being separately housed. Doubts were expressed about the ville
contemporaine‘s scale and degree of centralization.
The city espoused space, speed, mass production and efficient organization, but also offered a potentially
sterile combination of natural and urban environments.
Gross FAR = 60x 5% = 3
Net FAR excluding roads = 4
Average floor space = 100 sq. ft/person
This scheme was a city of magnificent skyscraper towers surrounded by broad and sweeping open
space.
The city was a huge park. Sixty-story office buildings accommodating 1,200 people per acre and
covering only 5% of the ground area were grouped in the heart of the city
The hub of the plan is the transportation centre for motor, and rail lines, the roof of which is the air –
field. Main highways are elevated.
Surrounding the skyscrapers was the apartment district, eight-story buildings arranged in zigzag rows
with broad open spaces about them, the density of population being 120 persons per acre.
Lying about the outskirts were the garden cities of single-family houses.
The residential zone contains schools, shopping centers, and recreational facilities.

The background of ville contemporaine : philosophy of Le Corbusier

No matter how open and green, cities should be frankly urban, urban surroundings are to be definitely
contrasting with rural surroundings
Densities are in themselves not a problem. Congestion and slum conditions in the cities are due to
excessive coverage, persistence of old street patterns and unrestricted land speculation
Slums exist because of the failure to provide the proper surrounding for high density living still providing
for classified street system, parking areas, adequate open spaces for parks, sport fields, and
community services
He protests against strict functionalism : ‗Human creations that survive are those which produce
emotions, and not those which are only useful‖

Ville contemporaine is primarily a revolt against the irrational growth of contemporary cities. It is a plan for
concentric city in which orderly, controlled elements replace the traditional pattern of the old metropolis
PLAN VOISIN 1925
It reworked certain elements of the Ville Contemporaine. Le corbusier proposed the construction of 18 double
cruciform 60 – storey skyscrapers, surrounded by green open spaces. These buildings were intended to attract
international corporations so that a modern Paris could act as a world center for administration. There would be
three clusters of luxury apartments, intended to keep the cultural elite in the city.
Particular attention centred on the road network. Le corbusier wanted to destroy the street in order to save it. He
was fully aware of the significance of the street in the drama of urban life, but believed that the traditional rue
corridor (corridor street) with its rigid line of buildings and intermingling of traffic and pedestrians, was an
impossible setting for that drama.
The new street system would have each functionally distinct traffic type occupying its own dedicated channel
placed at different levels. Heavy traffic would proceed at basement level, lighter at ground level, and fast traffic
should flow along limited-access arterial roads that supplied rapid and unobstructed cross-city movement. There
would also be pedestrianised streets, wholly separate from vehicular traffic and placed at a raised level. The
number of existing streets would be
diminished by two-thirds due to the new arrangements of housing, leisure facilities and workplaces, with same-
level crossing points eliminated wherever possible.
Critics attacked its focus on the central city, where land values were highest and dislocations most difficult; the
creation of vast empty spaces in place of close-knit streets with their varied civic life and the proposed
obliteration of much of the city‘s architectural heritage. Although intended seriously, the plan had immediate
shock value, particularly for its determined approach to reshaping the central districts – the areas most resist to
change.

LA VILLE RADIEUSE 1930 – THE RADIANT CITY

The plan for the Radiant city was first displayed at Brussels meeting of CIAM in 1930 although it was not
available in published form until 1935. it retained, but rearranged, the key features of the Ville Contemporaine.
The basic ideas of free circulation and greenery were still present, but the juxtaposition of different land-uses
had changed. For example, the central area was now residential instead of a skyscraper office core. The plan :
Was no longer a mandala of centralized power. Instead it spliced together an extendible linear city with the abstract image of a
man: head, spine, arms and body. The skyscrapers of the Ville Contemporaine were rearranged away from the city center at the
‗head‘…[The] ‗body‘ was made up of acres of housing strips laid out in a stepping plan to generate semi-courts and harbours of
greenery containing tennis courts, playing fields and paths. These all faced south…[and] were raised on pilotis so that the entire
surface of the city was a co-extensive, fully public space.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Ville Radieuse was its conscious reworking of the design of housing.
The idea of segregation of housing by social class was abandoned, replacing the different types of housing by
high-rise dwelling units for 2700 people. These would have services that included communal kitchens, crèches,
shops and gymnasia supplied. Family size was now the guiding rule for housing allocation, without regard to the
worker‘s place in the industrial hierarchy. These housing units were envisaged as an essential ingredient in
constructing a ‗classless society‘
In addition, there was conscious effort to sketch the lifestyle of inhabitants of the future city. Unlike soviet
architects, Le corbusier believed in the power of architecture to bring social change without necessarily requiring
the transformation in the economic base of society.
The previous concentric plan is considerably revised to allow a normal organic growth for the city
Now Le Corbusier comes to the belief that ‗the essence of the city is the dwelling area‘
Residential area occupies the most central location, with possible expansions to the right and left
toward the open country. The civic center is on the main axis. The business area on the top
Light manufacturing, freight yards and heavy industries at the bottom
Traffic pattern – an orthogonal system with super imposed diagonals
Subway system shows an equal simplicity
The density is here 400 people per acre
Each residential block is 1300 ft. x 1300 ft. or about
40 acres 16000 people = one neighbourhood. Each block has stadium, swimming pool, tennis
courts, schools and playgrounds
C.I.A.M. (CONGRESS INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE MODERNE) 1928 –FRANCE
The international congress of modern architects subjected the city to re-examination and posed
four basic elements of the urban biology :
Sun
Space
Vegetation
Steel and concrete
Le Corbusier assumed a leading role
It affirmed that town planning is the organizations of functions of collective life – this applies to both
rural and urban settlements
four functions of any settlement
dwelling
work
recreation
transportation, which connects the first three with one another.
Le Corbusier organized in CIAM assembly of constructors, for an Architectural renovation
ASCORAL (Assembly of Constructors for an Architectural Renewal) OF CIAM systematically
studied the problems of construction, architecture and city planning. It resulted in the publication of
‗The Three Human Establishments‘. The examination of working conditions in a mechanistic
society led to the recognition of the utility and necessity of three unit establishments indispensable
for human activity :
i. The Farming unit – the cooperative village : a unit for agricultural production
ii. The linear industrial city
iii. The radio concentric city - same as Radiant city (Ville Radieuse) for the exchange of goods and
services.

LINEAR INDUSTRIAL CITY – THE LINEAR TOWN ; UNIT FOR INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION
Leaving the ‗evils of the sprawling town‘, the new industrial communities are located along the main
arteries of transportation – water, rail and highway connecting the existing cities.
Factories are placed along the main arteries, separated from the residential section by the highway
and a green strip
The residential areas include the ‗horizontal garden town‘ of single houses and vertical apartment
buildings with civic center. Sports, entertainments, shopping and office facilities are distributed in
this district and all community facilities are placed within ample open space.
Industries are placed at intervals along the highway and railway. The existing cities so connected
remain as administrative, commercial and cultural centers.
CHANDIGARH
INDRODUCTION
The city of Chandigarh was the culmination of Le corbusier‘s life. This city is like the man. It is not gentle. It is
hard and assertive. It is not practical; it is riddled with mistakes made not in error but in arrogance. It is disliked
by small minds, but not by big ones. It is unforgettable. The man who adored the Mediterranean has here found
fulfillment, in the scorching heat of India.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, inspired the planners and builders of Chandigarh with the
words. ―This shall be the new city of free India, totally fresh and wholly responsive to the aspirations of the future
generations of this great country, and that the city shall be free from all shackles and shall be unfettered by the
traditions of the past – the city shall be so built and nurtured that it shall be a model for our glorious future
growth of the country.‖
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
It was bound by two seasonal choes, or rivulets, the patiali Rao and the Sukhna in the northwest and the south
east respectively. It extends in the northeast right up to the foothills of the shivaliks. The region experiences
extremes in the climate. The temperature could rise to 45 degrees in summer and drop to freezing point in
winter. The direction of the prevalent winds is southeast to the northwest in summer and northwest to the
southeast in winter.
THE SITE
After an extensive aerial survey, then the Capital Project Administrator, P.N. Thapar and Chief Engineer, P.L.
Verma selected the site—a sub-mountainous area of the then Ambala district about 240 km north of New Delhi,
the capital of the republic. The area was a flat, gently sloping plain of agricultural land dotted with groves of
mango trees which marked the sites of 24 villages or hamlets—one of which was named Chandigarh on
account of its temple dedicated to the goddess. The general ground level of the site ranges from 305 to 366
meters with a 1 per cent grade giving adequate drainage. To the northeast are the foothills of the Himalayas—
the Shivalik Range—rising abruptly to about 1524 meters and a dramatic natural backdrop. One seasonal
stream, the Patiali ki Rao, lies on the western side of the city and another, the Sukhna Choe, on the eastern
side. A third, smaller seasonal stream flows through the very center of Chandigarh. The area along this
streambed has been turned into a series of public gardens called the Leisure Valley.
THE AMERICAN ARCHITECTS AND PLANNERS
Although the city is now forever linked with the name of Le Corbusier, he was not the Government of India‘s
―first choice‖. In the late 1940‘s very few Indian architects were professionally trained in town planning so it was
necessary to look abroad for a man to carry out the Chandigarh scheme. The search led to the USA and Albert
Mayer. Mayer wasn‘t new to India. In December, 1949, when the Punjab government approached him for the
Chandigarh project, he was already associated with a rural development project at Etawah (Uttar Pradesh), and
preparation of master plans for Greater Bombay and Kanpur.
Mayer was thrilled with the prospect of planning a brand-new city, and he accepted the assignment although it
offered him a modest fee of $30,000 for the entire project. His brief was to prepare a master plan for a city of
half a million people, showing the location of major roads and areas for residence, business, industry, recreation
and allied uses. He was also to prepare detailed building plans for the Capitol Complex, City Centre, and
important government facilities and architectural controls for other areas.
On the advice of his friend Stein, Mayer inducted Matthew Nowicki. Nowicki was the head of the North Carolina
State College School of Architecture. Soon, Mayer and Nowicki became the key American planners for
Chandigarh.
The master plan as conceived by Mayer and Nowicki assumed a fan-shaped outline spreading gently to fill the
site between two seasonal riverbeds. At the head of the plan was the Capitol , the seat of the state government,
and the City Centre was located in the heart of the city. Two linear parklands could also be noticed running
continuously from the northeast head of the plain to its southwestern tip. A curving network of main roads
surrounded the neighborhood units called Super blocks. The first phase of the city was to be developed on the
northeastern side to accommodate 150,000 residents and the second phase on the southwestern side for
another 350,000 people. The proposed Super blocks were to be graded income wise in three density
categories: 10, 30 and 40 persons per hectare. Mayer wanted a more democratic mix of housing types, and felt
that the old practice of providing palatial bungalows for the elite needed rethinking as the services and open
space provided to them would be at the expense of the have-nots living in the smaller houses. He also desired
that most houses in the neighbourhood units should be located on the periphery, so that the central areas were
left for playgrounds, parks and recreational areas. Mayer liked ―the variation of [Indian] streets, offsetting and
breaking from narrow into wider and back‖ and thought that they were appropriate to a land of strong sunlight,
At the narrow points, his house design involved an inner courtyard for ventilation with small openings on the
street side to protect privacy. ―We loved this little inner courtyard,‖ Mayer wrote, ―for it seemed to us to bring the
advantages of coolness and dignity into a quite small house.‖ Another element in planning was ―to place a group
of houses around a not very large court, with the ends somewhat narrowing, which could serve as a social
unit—i.e. a group of relatives or friends or people from the same locality might live there, with the central area
for play, gossip, etc.‖ The neighbourhood units were to contain schools and local shopping centres. The multi-
mode transportation system was a major problem. Mayer tackled it by creating a “three-fold-system‖ that
segregated land use in the master plan; there were neighbourhoods and areas for business, industry and
cultural activities. He also planned separate roads for incompatible types of traffic. Separate provisions were to
be made for slow animal-drawn carts, for bicycles and pedestrians. Also he proposed to have a configuration of
fast-traffic arterial roads with at least 400 meters distance between the two. He also favoured use of cul-de-sacs
so that pedestrians and cyclists could move on paths through parks and green areas. Land was also to be
reserved for future expansion of roads, parking areas etc. Although Mayer‘s contract did not stipulate detailed
architectural schemes, he felt that they could not isolate two-dimensional planning of the city from its
architectural character. And it was left mainly to Nowicki his talented younger partner to sketch out conceptual
schemes for the image of the city. For the legislative assembly, he evolved a form that took the shape of a
parabolic dome inspired by the Indian stupa, symbolic motif of the sacred mountain. Nowicki was keen to end all
his modern architectural creations with the Indian idiom of built form. He even endorsed the idea of the
traditional home-cum-workplace of a small entrepreneur or artisan. His sketches indicate typical Indian features
such as shops with platforms to sit on the floor, and overhanging balconies or awnings, with separate areas for
hawkers. This house-cum-workplace had typical traditional features like brickwork jalis and screens to shield the
windows from the hot summer winds.
His conceptual sketches indicate curving streets, courtyards, and a delightful sequence of open and closed
spaces - with ample use of water and greenery to soften the built forms. Quite appropriately the building
materials of his choice was the good old brick, as it was the cheapest medium - a conclusion that holds true
even now On August 31, 1950, Nowicki died in a plane crash. Mayer felt that he could not handle the
monumental project alone and withdrew, severing the American connection with Chandigarh.

LE CORBUSIERS MASTER PLAN The city was still entirely on paper. To translate this dream into brick and
cement, the government would have to find another architect. The choice fell on Le Corbusier, an architect and
urban theorist, many of whose ideas were at variance with those of Mayer and Nowicki. The other important
members of his team were Pierre Jeanerette, Maxwell Fry, Jane Drew
Unlike Mayer, Le Corbusier had never set foot in India until the Chandigarh project first brought him to the
country in 1951. In four days of feverish activity, they redesigned the city. The leaf-like outline of Mayer‘s plan
was squared up into a mesh of rectangles.
Although Le Corbusier made many radical changes in the Americans‘ master plan, incorporating his own
architectural and city planning ideas, it is a tribute to Mayer and Nowicki‘s vision that he incorporated several of
their seminal ideas. For example, the basic framework of the master plan and its components - the Capitol , City
Centre, university, industrial area, and a linear parkland - as conceived by Mayer and Nowicki were retained by
Le Corbusier. The restructured master plan almost covered the same site and the neighbourhood unit was
retained as the main module of the plan. The Super block was replaced by now what is called the Sector
covering an area of 91 hectares, approximately that of the three-block neighbourhood unit planned by Mayer.
The City Centre, the railway station and the industrial areas by and large retained their original locations.
However, the Capitol , though still sited at the prime location of the northeastern tip of the plan, was shifted
slightly to the northwest. The neighbourhood unit, so important to Mayer, retained its importance in Le
Corbusier‘s plan. But the opposing viewpoints lay in the configuration of the neighbourhood units. While the
former preferred a naturalistic, curving street pattern without the rigidity of a sterile geometric grid—the latter
was adverse to “solidification of the accidental”. For Le Corbusier the straight line was the logical connecting
path between two points, and any “forced naturalness” was superfluous. Moreover, Le Corbusier always
looked at the city plan in terms of a single cohesive monumental composition—with major axes linking the focal
points of the city. The emphasis on visual cohesion between the various city components was an essential
feature of his somewhat rigid gridiron plan.

BASIC PLANNING COMPONENTS

Le Corbusier‘s plan was based on the gridiron defined by a system of seven types of roads, which Le Corbusier
called the 7 Vs (from the French word ‗voie‘) and their expected functions around and within the neighbourhood.
The neighbourhood itself is surrounded by the fast-traffic road called V3 intersecting at the junctions of the
neighbourhood unit called sector with a dimension of 800 meters by 1200 meters. The entrance of cars into the
sectors of 800 meters by 1200m, which are exclusively reserved to family life, can take place on four points
only; in the middle of the 1200 m. in the middle of the 800 meters. The transit traffic takes place out of the
sectors: the sectors being surrounded by four wall-bound car roads without openings (the V3s). And this (a
novelty in town-planning and decisive) was applied at Chandigarh: no house (or building) door opens on the
thoroughfare of rapid traffic.
THE BIOLOGICAL ANALOGY Le Corbusier liked to compare the city he planned to a biological entity: the
head was the Capitol, the City Centre was the heart and work area of the institutional area and the
university was limbs. Aside from the Leisure Valley traversing almost the entire city, parks extended
lengthwise through each sector to enable every resident to lift their eyes to the changing panorama of hills and
sky. Le Corbusier identified four basic functions of a city: living, working, circulation and care of the body and
spirit. Each sector was provided with its own shopping and community facilities, schools and places of worship.
“Circulation” was of great importance to Le Corbusier and determined the other three basic functions. By
creating a hierarchy of roads, Le Corbusier sought to make every place in the city swiftly and easily accessible
and at the same time ensure tranquility and safety of living spaces.
THE PERIPHERY CONTROL ACT The Periphery Control Act of 1952 created a wide green belt around the
entire union territory. It regulated all development within 16 kilometers of the city limit, prohibited the
establishment of any other town or village and forbade commercial or industrial development. The idea was to
guarantee that Chandigarh would always be surrounded by countryside.
ADMINISTRATION & EDUCATION Le Corbusier wanted Chandigarh to be devoted exclusively to
administration and education; he firmly believed that an industrial town did not mix with an administrative one.
He supposed that the majority of the inhabitants would spend their working hours in the Capitol, Estate Office
or various other buildings occupied by government departments , in the offices and shops of the City Centre or
along Madhya Marg, or on the campuses of the colleges and university, or in other research institutions
INDUSTRY Despite his bias against industry, Le Corbusier was persuaded to set aside 235 hectares for non-
Polluting, light industry on the extreme southeastern side near the railway line as far away from the Educational
Sector and Capitol as possible. Of this, 136 hectares were to be developed during the first phase. While the
Industrial Sector is directly connected to the civic centre by a V-3 road, a wide buffer of fruit trees was planted to
screen off this area from the rest of the city. Plot sizes were laid out to accommodate both large and small
establishments and were sold at auction, subject to the restriction of industries considered obnoxious. Maximum
site coverage up to 50 per cent was allowed and in this area, 2.5 per cent of the space is permitted for use as
quarters for essential staff. Sneh Pandit explains the rationale for this: ―It will indirectly force the industrialists to
provide accommodation for labour and staff within the city which is more desirable than their living in an
exclusive area. In Sector 30, which is sufficiently close to the Industrial Sector yet within the city, multistoried
buildings have gone up to provide suitable tenements for the workers. Later controls enforce that structures be
made mainly in brick, allowing only 25 per cent area to be plastered. Sloping sheds or sloping roofs are not
permitted, so that the Industrial Sector conforms with the look of the rest of the town—although this in not
adhered to in reality.‖ Aside from Sector 30, eventually sectors 28 and 29 were also set aside for industrial
housing.
COMMERCE
The Jan Marg, culminating at the Capitol , is the main north-south axis of the city; Madhya Marg, culminating at
the Educational Sector, is the main east-west axis. The City Centre was laid out immediately southeast of the
intersection of these two axes. It is one complete sector of approximately 100 hectares and broadly divided into
a northern and southern zone.
The Southern zone has been developed as a centre of district administration, containing the district courts and
police headquarters, the fire station and interstate bus terminus, while major commercial and civic functions are
carried out in the northern section. Lack of elevators, and the fact that Chandigarh lies in a zone of moderate
seismic activity and limitations of building materials and methods dictated the four-storey height limit for all
buildings of the City Centre. The size of the buildings was determined by what the planners thought the owners
could afford. The building form emerged from architectural control based on a standardised, reinforced cement
concrete frame of columns, beams and slabs, with room for interior modification according to the needs of the
owner. Madhya Marg While providing for a commercial heart—Sector 17, the City Centre—Le Corbusier also
designated the northeastern side of the V-2 road known as Madhya Marg as a commercial district. ― Initially, Le
Corbusier had proposed to house the wholesale establishments in buildings which would present to the street
an unbroken brick façade. This was to be pierced only by a central doorway leading to an interior courtyard on
which the offices and showrooms would face. These austere three-storey blocks are intended to line the street
as a terrace formation, on the northeastern side, giving the effect of an unbroken wall. To the government
officials charged with the responsibility of approving the plan, however, this appeared a scheme not only lacking
in visual appeal as urban design, but also one, which would fail to attract commercial users. As a result, the
Capital Project Office attempted a compromise design, in which the ground floor would have display windows
facing the street behind a verandah. To achieve something of Le Corbusier‘s completely blank façade, and still
permit a measure of light and ventilation to a second level of windows on the front façade, a brick screen was
extended in front of the second floor at the outer edge of the verandah and continued to the upper level masking
an open terrace. The plan of this type of building provided for ground-floor showrooms, offices at the mezzanine
level, with a residence for the caretaker or manager at the top floor. To the rear of the block would be a walled
compound for storage and other purposes. It was intended that advertising signs would be permitted on the
exterior of these buildings. Their size, form and colour were, however, to be controlled. However many
deviations and changes have occurred in the present from the initial concept.
Sector Markets Le Corbusier wanted to make each sector self-contained with respect to the necessities of daily
life and accordingly each sector was provided with a mini-commercial district of its own. Each sector was to
have its maintenance organisation, fire brigade, police, library, market, and the necessary artisans. These
services were set up in a line of 800 meters on one side (facing north) to avoid dispersion and frequent road
crossings as well as the sun‘s heat. Cars can take this road at a reduced speed and park there. This shop-street
continues into the neighbouring sectors on the right and left
OPEN SPACES Some 800 hectares of green open space are spread over the approximately 114 square
kilometers of the Capital Project area. Major open areas include the Leisure Valley, Sukhna Lake, Rock Garden
and many other special gardens. In addition, the sectors are vertically integrated by green space oriented in the
direction of the mountains. Le Corbusier envisaged the construction of schools and playing fields in these green
bands.
LANDSCAPING Landscaping proceeded side by side with the construction of the city from the very inception.
Three spaces were identified for special plantation: the roadsides, spaces around important buildings, parks and
special features such as Sukhna Lake. In July, 1953, a Landscape Advisory Committee was set up under the
guidance of Dr M.S. Randhawa, later to be the City‘s first Chief Commissioner and a man of versatile talents. Le
Corbusier‘s contribution to landscaping was of categorising tree forms. He made a simple analysis of the
functional needs and aesthetic suitability for the various areas, devoting special attention to specific roads.
ROADSIDE PLANTATION It was intended to have continuous, informally planted interior and exterior tree belts
to give a sense of direction and culminate dramatically at the Capitol. For the V-2 Avenue of the Capitol, Le
Corbusier wrote: ‖The Avenue of the Capitol consists of heavy traffic with a parallel band of parking, a large
pavement on each side and with shops and arcades and high-rise buildings. Also outside this and parallel will
be the eroded valley (which touches from time to time). On the one hand, it seems useful to demarcate the
highway by a border of high trees and on the other hand to unite with one glance the entire width of the
avenue.‖ ‖The V-4 will be the street, which will give its own character to each sector. Consequently each V-4 will
be different from the others and furnished with special characteristics because it is indispensable to create a
great variety across the city and to furnish to inhabitants elements of classification. All the possibilities of nature
are at our disposal to give to each V-4 a personality which will maintain itself in the whole width of the town and
thus tie up five or six sectors traversed by a V-4.‖ ‖To specialise the character of each V-4 will be planted with
trees having different colour, or of a different species. For example one V-4 will be yellow, one V-4 will be red,
and one V-4 will be blue.‖ At present, the prominent flowering trees are gulmohar (Delonix regia), amaltas
(Cassia fistula), kachnar (Bauhinea variegata), pink cassia (Cassia Javanica) and silver oak (Grevillea robusta).
Among the conspicuous non-flowering trees one finds kusum (Schleicheta trijuga) and pilkhan (Ficus infectoria)
along V3 roadsides. These trees, noted for their vast, thick spreading canopies form great vaulting shelters over
many of the city‘s roads. In all, more than 100 different tree species have been planted in (Fieus religosa)
Chandigarh .
March and April are “autumn” in North India. Trees such as pikhan, pipal kusum and many more shed their old
leaves creating a thick golden carpet that crunches underfoot. This is also the time when the tall silk-cotton
(Bombax malabaricum) trees put forth their enormous red blossoms and the jacaranda appears like a wispy
plume of purple smoke.
The dry riverbeds of the Patiala ki Rao and Sukhna were the focus of the earliest tree plantations.
Hardy species were planted down the entire length to mitigate the severe dust storms that ravaged the site in
summer. The areas were declared Reserved City Forests. In 1952 the Tree Preservation Act was passed which
prohibited cutting down, lopping or willful destruction of trees in Chandigarh.

CITY GARDENS While evolving the iron grid layout of the city, Le Corbusier incorporated an integrated park
system of continuous green belts from one end of the city to the other, allowing an unobstructed view of the
mountains. Pedestrian paths and cycle-tracks were to be laid out through these irregularly shaped linear parks
to allow a person to travel the entire length of the city under a canopy of green. The valley of a seasonal rivulet
that ran through the city site for about 8 kilometers with a depth of about 6 meters and a width extending to a
maximum of 300 meters was imaginatively made use of. A series of special gardens transformed the existing
eroded area into what is now called the Leisure Valley. Aside from this large chain of gardens there are many
other gardens: some devoted to particular flowers or flowering trees, others created as memorials and still
others planned around topiary or fountains.
HOUSING Lower category residential buildings are governed by a mechanism known as ―frame control‖ to
control their facades. This fixes the building line and height and the use of building materials. Certain standard
sizes of doors and windows are specified and all the gates and boundary walls must conform to standard
design. This particularly applies to houses built on small plots of 250 square metres or less. All these houses
are built on a terrace pattern and while they are allowed a certain individual character, the idea is to ensure that
the view from the street, which belongs to the community, is one of order and discipline. Individuals are given
the freedom to create the interiors to suit their requirements for dwelling, working, relaxing. All buildings along
the major axes of the city are brought under architectural control. A person building a house in Chandigarh must
employ a qualified architect and the design is submitted to the Chief Architect for approval. Particular scrutiny
was applied to residential buildings constructed along Uttar Marg (the northernmost avenue of the city at the
very foot of the mountains), those abutting on Leisure Valley and along certain V-3 roads.

COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS All buildings located in the City Centre and commercial or institutional buildings
located along V-2 roads are subjected to controls. The system of the City Centre is based on a grid of columns,
fixed 5.26 meters shuttering pattern on concrete and a system of glazing or screen walls behind the line of
columns. The interior planning is left to the owners, and in the exterior, certain variations are permitted to give
variety to the architectural composition. Along the V-2 roads, other types of treatments have been evolved for
facades. All commercial buildings and all buildings constructed along the V-4 roads in other sectors are also
under strict control. For shops, complete designs have been provided from the inception of the city.

SCHEMATIC DESIGN CONTROL In cases where special types of buildings occur in the architectural control
areas, a schematic design is prepared on the basis of which the developer prepares the final designs in
consultation with the Chief Architect. This has been so far applied to the design of cinema theatres in the City
Centre and to petrol stations. Aditya Prakash, one of the architects who worked with Le Corbusier, observes: ―It
has always been realised that Chandigarh must be well planned both in the private as well as in the public
sector. From the very beginning, all the commercial buildings of Chandigarh are under architectural control, but
private housing by and large had been left to its fate (of course, under the normal bye-laws and zoning) hoping
that good taste engendered by the government buildings will prevail and good architects will settle in
Chandigarh and fulfill the needs of private builders. [Now, many years later]
Having introduced so many controls, the process is still continuing. The existing controls are being refined or
new controls introduced. In all these controls, whereas restrictions are imposed on things which are generally
unsightly, provision is always made to permit a good architect to use his skill to provide the otherwise prohibited
things on the exterior so that they enhance the aesthetic appeal of
the building or at any rate do not mar its beauty.‖ Functional distributions and placement of different activities
within the city was based on human analogy so as to enable the city to function as an organic entity. The
industrial area was placed on the southeast to eliminate entry of heavy traffic into the city. A 150 meters belt of
trees thickly planted with trees provided an organic seal around residential sectors to eliminate noise and
industrial pollution Along with the Periphery Control Act and the Tree Protection Act, the more obtrusive
types of signboards and advertisements were banned. These three measures were intended to check
environmental and visual pollution and thereby protect the city‘s character and safeguard its quality of life.
CIRCULATION
The 7Vs establishes a hierarchy of traffic circulation ranging from: arterial roads (V1), major boulevards (V2)
sector definers (V3), shopping streets (V4), neighbourhood streets (V5), access lanes (V6) and pedestrian paths
and cycle tracks (V7s and V8s). The essence of his plan for Chandigarh rests on preserving intact the true
functions of these seven types of roads.
‗The 7 Vs act in the town plan as the bloodstream, the lymph system and the respiratory system act in biology.
These systems are quite rational, they are different from each other, there is no confusion between them, yet
they are in harmony ... It is for us to learn from them when we are organising the ground that lies beneath our
feet. The 7Vs are no longer the sinister instruments of death, but become an organised hierarchy of roads which
can bring modern traffic circulation under control‘.‖ The entrance of cars into the sectors, which are exclusively
reserved to family life, can take place on four points only; in the middle of the 1,200 meters; in the middle of the
800 meters
The road system was so designed that ―never a door will open on the surrounding V3s: precisely the four
surrounding V3s must be separated from the sector by a blind wall all along.‖ Buses can ply on the V4s, the
horizontal connection between contiguous sectors, but not within the sector interiors.