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Le corbusier – Intiatives ideas

 Le Corbusier was born in the small Swiss town of La Chaux-de-
Fonds. By 1905 he had started his architectural training under the
mentorship of a local architect.

 He was an avid reader and a keen observer, and two years later
he also became an enthusiastic and life-long traveller
(Mediterranean - impressed by Greek, Roman and Turkish
aesthetic and spatial ideals, South America - Brazil he adopted
curvilinear, geometrically less precise forms, North Africa - rougher
vernacular of the Maghreb and the United States reinforced his
belief in freeways, tall buildings and larger street blocks).

 In The city of tomorrow he notes two types of city structures. One

is “a progressive growth, subject to chance, with resultant
characteristics of slow accumulation and gradual rise”.

 The other is “the construction of a city as the expression of a 2

reconceived and predetermined plan embodying the then
known principles of the science” street blocks.
Le corbusier – Intiatives
ideas
• In 1914 he designed a village of 120 freestanding and attached
houses just outside La Chaux-de-Fonds ( admired the British garden
suburbs of Letchworth and Hampstead designed by Barry Parker
and Raymond Unwin use them as a precedent, adhering to the
principles of symmetry and the central park ). But the plan resembles
an organic vernacular village on a sloping site more than it does a
planned garden city ( adopted Ruskin’s aesthetic philosophy).

• The village was never built. It nevertheless demonstrates an early

ability to interpret the unselfconscious historical building traditions
of the region and an appreciation for context, rather than be
seduced by the formalism of Ebenezer Howard’s diagram, which was
so popular at that time.

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THE CIAM-1928
The ciam (congress of modern architecture)main aim was to spread the
principles of modern architecture throughout the world

1928 architects, organized a meeting of leading

Modern architects including Berlage , Le
Corbusier , El Lissitzky , Rietveld , and Stam.

The organization was hugely influential. It was

not only engaged in formalizing the
architectural principles of the Modern
Movement.

also saw architecture as an economic and

political tool that could be used to improve the
world through the design of buildings and
through urban planning.

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Le Corbusier ideologies
• The Plan must rule.
• Disappearance of the street.
• Differentiation between simple and multiple speeds.
• What to do with LEISURE in the machine age; leisure could turn out
to be the menace of modern times.
• The use of land in the town and country.
• The dwelling unit considered as part of the public services.
• The green city.
• The civilization of the automobile replacing that of the railroad.
• Landscaping the countryside.
• The decline of money.
• The basic pleasure: satisfaction of psycho-physiological needs,
collective participation and the freedom of the individual. 5
• The rebirth of human body.
Le Corbusier – Urban Planning

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 A Contemporary City – 1922
 First World War – was obliged to face two serious issues: A severe
housing shortage and an increase in the use of private vehicles in cities
designed for horse-drawn traffic.

Great Park

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 A Contemporary city for 3 million people, presented at the November
1922 Salon d’ Automne in Paris.
A Contemporary City – 1922 ( 3 million)
• Four principles of Planning:
The higher the density of city’s population shorter the distance
to be covered. So he constructed vertical towers with
increased density of population, greatly increase planted
area.
a.Relieve the congestion of central districts to satisfy traffic
requirements.
b.Increase the population density of central district to facilitate
business contacts.
c.Improve traffic flow.
d.Increase planted areas.

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A Contemporary City – 1922
• Three basic components
1.A central business district is surrounded by residential
districts.

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A Contemporary City – 1922

3. Two million people live in garden- cities located in the 10

suburbs.
 A Contemporary City – 1922
• Street System
Three kind of streets be placed one
above the other:
• Underground Streets for trucks.
• At ground floor building level, there
will be complex network of regular
streets that will allow local traffic to
reach all parts of the city.
• Big elevated highways 40 or 60m
wide, which are made of reinforced
concrete, will run on North- South
& East – West axes of city for rapid
through traffic. They will be
connected to local streets by ramps
at 800 or 1200m (1/2 or ¾ of a
mile ) intervals. 11
 A Contemporary City – 1922
Conclusion
Diversity in the overall appearance of a city and unity in the individual
buildings.
Based on this Le Corbusier arrived two planning concepts
•Chaos & Turmoil in the general plan.
•Uniformity in the details.

To make bridge between man 12

& the large scale building tree
has been planted.
THE VOISIN PLAN - 1925
• The Plan Voisin is a solution for the center of Paris, drawn between 1922
and 1925 by Le Corbusier.
• In 1925, “Plan Voisin de paris” is financed by Voisin motor company.
• Le corbusier reworked certain elements of the Ville Contemporaine &
applied to a section of paris.

• The space is highly

structured with two
new traffic arteries
pierced through the
city, one on the east-
west, the other on a
north-south.
• They have the
ambition to link the
capital to the four
corners of the country,
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the major French and
European cities.
source: The ideas of Le corbusier on
architecture & urban planning
THE VOISIN PLAN
• Buildings available in a regular orthogonal grid occupying a very important part of
the right bank of the Seine.
• The plan covers the area about 2 miles long, which lies north of the Rue de Rivoli
and is divided into the business district in the east and Residential district in the
west. Some of the historical buildings are preserved.
• Le Corbusier proposed the construction
of 18double 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.
• Three clusters of luxury apartment,
intended to keep the cultural elite in
the city.

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source: The ideas of Le corbusier on

architecture & urban planning,
Town planning & Human settlements
THE VOISIN PLAN
STREET SYSTEM
• Heavy traffic would proceed at basement level.
• lighter traffic at ground level.
• fast traffic should flow along limited-access arterial roads that supplied rapid and
unobstructed crosscity movement

• 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.

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source: The ideas of Le corbusier on
architecture & urban planning,
Town planning & Human settlements
THE VOISIN PLAN
CRITICISM
• 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.

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source: The ideas of Le corbusier on architecture & urban planning, Town planning & Human settlements
THE RADIANT CITY
“The Ville Radieuse was dedicated to the idea that harmony
could be found within industrialism by finding the right
balance between individual, family and the public order of the
state; between built form and open space; between city and
nature” -Le Corbusier, the Radiant City1935.

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 ZONING
According to Le Corbusier the main essence of any city is the
residential zone. So he planned it in such a way that it can be
extended without difficulty on either side but within a considerable
margin that is reserved from the very beginning for civic
organizations. By setting the business center and the industrial
sectors on either side, the internal travel is diminished by half.

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Le Corbusier planned the city, where there will be
• No streets
• No courtyards
The general characters of the Radiant City are as
follows:
• The city ( a capital) is much less spread out than
the present one
• The distance within it are therefore shorter,
which makes travel time less
• There are no suburbs or dormitory towns, which
gives the solution for the transportation crisis.
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CIRCULATION
• The entire ground level is designed for pedestrian movement. Highways and
auto ports are placed 5m above the ground level so that there will no
interference in both pedestrian and vehicular movement. Elevators are
provided within 100m distance from any apartment entry and they are
connected with horizontal interior roads, to provide better accessibility and
connectivity.

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PLANNING
• Recessed line pattern is used on residential blocks to create an
architectural spectacle.

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• Orientation of these units are based on Heliothermic Axis. So
that no apartment will be without sun.

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 The Great Waste ,1937
• Le corbusier mainly aimed at “elimination
of suburbs in the city” because he
considered them they are major factor of
wasting money and time.

• Analyzed the proper equilibrium of 24 hour

cycle should be discovered and restored.

• Solar day existence in US and Europe were

considered for salvation of the problem.
The issues represented sleeping time and
leisure time was very less (5 hours in a day)
and working time & transportation through
buses, street cars, subways ,trains etc
ruined almost more than 12 hours in a day.

• Le corbusier points out socially

manufactured products (shelter, clothes,
food, books & movies) are form of art and 24
rest of them Great waste.
 The Great Waste proposal

Le corbusier proposed modern city

which should not have suburbs.
Concentrate on height based on
what was lost in breadth.
The problem of transportation will
be resolved through removing
suburbs from modern city
Productive working hours ( 5hrs)
and transportation (not more than
half an hour to reach work
destination.
Sleeping time (8 hrs) and leisure
time (increased to more than 11
hours in 24 hour cycle).
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Regional planning, 1939
• Le corbusier enforced his
ideology of leisure to expand his
urban planning theories to a
regional scale .

• He proposed “Four routes”

(roads, waterways, airlines
&railways) to bring revolution in
social condition, building
technique & transportation
system

• Developed regional planning in

the contemporary and radiant
cities.

• The four routes requires

teamwork and whole spectrum
of needed specialist such as
builders, technician, engineers, 26
scientist where the role of
architects became unknowable.
Regional planning  Three basic “human
establishment” - agriculture,
industrial & commercial should
adapt present day need.
 Industrial linear city (industrial
area) and Radio centric city
( interaction of highways –
commercial, administrative &
governmental centers).
 Lined up along highway -
promote “Linear cities” (transport
route to bring raw materials and
distribute manufactured goods).
 The site plan : 1) Apartment and
residences 2) Road to the factory
3)Road connecting dwelling &
common services 4) Pedestrian
path 5) Green buffer zone and
parkway leading to radiocentric 27
cities & 6) common services like
library, sports facilities etc.
CHANDIGARH PLANNING
• CHANDIGARH was the first planned city after independence
from British rule in 1947. It is the capital city of the states of
Punjab and Haryana.
• The city is located at the picturesque junction of foothills of
the Himalayas Mountain range and the Ganges plains.
• It houses a population of 1,054,600 inhabitants (2001) and is
one of the richest cities of the nation.
• American architects Albert Mayer and Mathew Novicki were
the first architects to be appointed for the project.
• After the death of Novicki in 1950, Le Corbusier was
commissioned.

NEHRU’S VISION
“Let this be a new town, symbolic of freedom of
India unfettered by the traditions of the past….. 28
an expressions of the nation’s faith in the
future”.
NOWICKI PROPOSAL
Nowicki conceived another schematic plan of his own derived
from the organic leaf compared with the commercial axis stem
cuts through the centre of the city traffic arteries will branch out
from stem.

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ALBERT MEYER’S PROPOSAL

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ALBERT MEYER’S PROPOSAL

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CHANDIGARH PLANNING – LE CORBUSIER
Le Corbusier visited the site on Feb.
18,1951.

•Indian government gave maximum

freedom to the architect.

•Making of great things with hand

labor without machines.

•Extreme climatic situations–to make shade & ventilate.

•He introduced several major changes in Mayer-Nowick is plan.

•Horizontal planning.
•Garden city

•Phase I–30 self supporting units,3641 hectares,1,50,000 people. 32

•Phase II–17 sectors,2428 hectares,35,000 people.

CHANDIGARH PLANNING – LE CORBUSIER
•The Master plan prepared by Le Corbusier was broadly similar to the
one prepared by the team of planners led by Albert Mayer and Mathew
Novicki except that

• the shape of the city plan was modified from one with a curving road
network to rectangular shape with a grid iron pattern for the fast traffic
roads, besides reducing its area for reason of economy.

•The city plan was conceived as post war „Garden City‟ wherein vertical
and high rise buildings were ruled out,

• keeping in view the socio economic-conditions and living habits of the

people

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CHANDIGARH PLANNING – LE CORBUSIER
CORBUSIERS MASTER PLAN –CHANDIGARH

•Modernist city planning –principles of CIAM, in terms of division of

urban functions, an anthropomorphic plan form, & a hierarchy of road
and pedestrian network here…..

•Modified Mayers original, more organic, master plan –retained original

features.

Le Corbusier : the master plan According to the designer the plan embodied
four basic principles :

•Decongestion of centers of cities

•Increase of density
•Enlargement of means of circulation
•Enlargement of the landscaped areas 34
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CHANDIGARH PLANNING – LE CORBUSIER
BASIC PLANNING CONCEPTS
The city plan was conceived as post war ‘Garden City’
wherein vertical and high rise buildings were ruled
out, keeping in view the living habits of the people.
• Le Corbusier conceived the master plan of
Chandigarh as analogous to human body, with a
clearly defined
• Head (the Capitol Complex, Sector 1),
• Heart (the City Centre Sector-17),
• Lungs (the leisure valley, innumerable open spaces
and sector greens),
• Intellect (the cultural and educational institutions),
• Circulatory system (the network of roads, the 7Vs)
and
• Viscera (the Industrial Area).
CHANDIGARH PLANNING – LE CORBUSIER

Sectors

•Each sector is 800m X 1200m -caters

to the daily needs of its inhabitants,
which vary from 5,000 to 25,000 and
has a green strip.

•The green strip should stay

uninterrupted & accommodate
schools, sports fields, walks &
recreational facilities for the sector.

•Vehicular traffic is completely

forbidden in the green strips, where
tranquility shall reign & the curse of 36
noise shall not penetrate
Roads 37
A hierarchy of roads separated pedestrian & vehicular traffic into 7 different
road types -7 V‟s (the blood stream, the lymph system )
• V1 –fast moving road types,
• V –5 sector circulation roads,
• V2 –arterial roads,
• V –6 access roads to houses,
• V3 –Fast vehicular roads,
• V –4 meandering shopping • V –7 foot paths and cycle tracks.
streets,

V1

V2

V1
CHANDIGARH PLANNING – LE CORBUSIER
Greenscape
•The hierarchy of open space is prominently
visible in the city.

• At the city level, the open space consist of

1.the road sides, around important buildings, leisure valley
parks & near Sukhna lake.
2.Non flowering & vast thick spread trees –V3
road sides.
3.trees having different colors near V4
4.A series of special gardens –leisure valley.

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The Rose Garden The Rock Garden

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CHANDIGARH PLANNING – LE CORBUSIER
• At sector level, the open space constitute the central green in each sector
where as open space at community level consist of parks around which
clusters of houses are arranged.

•The smallest category of open space is the courtyards provided in each

dwelling on the front and rearside.

•Keeping in view the habits of he peoples, Le Corbusier planned that every

dwelling should have three elements of Sun, Space and greenery.

•The housing in the city can be sub-divided into two parts-Government

housing and Private Housing.

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CHANDIGARH PLANNING – LE CORBUSIER
Other areas of special architectural interests :

1.Skyline, height, character & architecture

of buildings as planned shall not be altered.

2.City center : The central plaza in sector 17

was designed by Le Corbusier as “pedestrian
paradise”. no vehicular traffic will be
permitted in the plaza.

3.Industrial areas: Industries by electricity

are permitted, so that atmosphere saved
from pollution.

4.The lake : is a gift of the creators of

Chandigarh to the citizens to be at one with
the lake & its environment.
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5.Materials :concrete, bricks, stone.

THE PROBLEMS :-
Explosion of Population
Political Intervention
Isolation and Alienation of the Capitol Complex
The Zonal Approach
Lack of Landmarks
The missing Indianness and culture

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