Evolution of Chandigarh Modern City to a Smart City
Introduction
The partition of 1947, ending a 300-year-long British domination, introduced a change of political borders and birthed two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. Along communal lines, the division bifurcated Punjab’s current capital into the two new countries, creating a geographical blur between the two communities.
The former capital of Punjab, Lahore, now located in the new country of Pakistan, left Punjab, which remained with India, with no capital city (Chalana,2014). For which the then Prime Minister of newly independent India, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, envisioned establishing a new capital free from influences of old towns, traditions, and the ghastly past with intentions of representing a new India, the face of modern India dawning into the future, symbolizing the overcoming of years of oppression and the newfound freedom to build a new nation. With the post-partition changes in administration and the influx of population settlements, a new city could help facilitate government function and unregulated migration (Fitting,2002).
As the inception of a new model city and hosting it as the new capital materialized, an initiative seeking an appropriate city planner began. The lack of experience due to years of oppression, deprivation of education, and exposure to fields of intellect by the natives made finding a local architect challenging, leading the government to consider Western pastures. A European team of architects and planners, along with an Indian team for the local context, was soon established and led by architect Le Corbusier (Fitting,2002).
This planning methodology soon generated a simplified grid pattern inspired by the ‘father of urban planning’-Hippodamus’s invention of the modular urban grid. The grid layout is intended to integrate the expressive of human domination over the landscape and reflects power and
order (Wall & Waterman,2010).
Source: Jackson, I. (2013) Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew’s early housing and neighborhood planning in Sector-22, Chandigarh. Planning Perspectives. 28.
Chandigarh, a Modernist City
At the establishment of Chandigarh, the term modernism prevailed. Master planners like Corbusier believed that modernism could reshape the cities in bold new forms. Their takes on breaking away from the traditional forms of architecture and embracing modern aesthesis took the world by storm, with many architects like Mies Van Der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright and more drafting our visions of modern cities (Wall & Waterman,2010).
These considerations of modern aesthetics, incorporation of open green spaces, the introduction of green belts, segregation of administrative or economic areas from residential zones, street layouts, and other design aspects promoted Chandigarh as a visionary project in a country that was still under formation (Chalana,2014).
The Master Layout
Le Corbusier’s master plan of the city reflected the human body (Le Modular, The Modular Man). While the northern zones were reserved for civic administration functions, creating the head of the human body, the city center was in the middle of the plan, making it the city’s heart. The green belt and the open green parks acted as the lungs of the city and the road networks; the 7V’s acted as the circulatory system. The industries were flanked at the outskirts, making them the viscera (General Information, Chandigarh, the Official Website of the Chandigarh Administration, 2016).
Source: Le Corbusier. (1983). Le Modular. Oeuvre complete Foundation Le Corbusier.
Source: Le Corbusier. (1964). El urbanismo de los tres establecimientos humanos..
However, the inflexible master plan limited the city’s growth potential, resulting in the lands allocated initially for the industries on the outskirts being sold to developers, further leading to the expansion of the plan and a breach in the regulations, inducing illegal urbanization of the periphery. As a result, the demands to develop revisions to the master plan, to safeguard the class and quality of life in Chandigarh rose (Laltu,1995).
Revised Master Plan
As a result of the pressure, the city released its new master plan on April 23, 2015, addressing its expansion, making it easy to account for the growth trajectory around the periphery (General Information, Chandigarh, the Official Website of the Chandigarh Administration, 2016)
Source: Singh, T. (2023). Hand sketch showing the expansion of Chandigarh form Corbusier’s Plan to current addition of peripheral encroachment
Throughout the changing years of Chandigarh, unplanned development has attracted significant resistance. The natives of these land parcels are not the only ones protesting the new, unregulated developments but also the Ministry of Environment and other groups and committees. Without a proper direction or plan, they fear that inordinate development will stress the city’s resources, adversely affecting city life (Laltu,1995).
As Inam (2014) reckoned, it is easy to get carried away by the ideas and sketches laid down by Le Corbusier and his city beautiful. However, paying attention to the effects of the notion’s months, years, and decades later becomes imperative. Disregarding these results will adversely affect the city and the residents’ daily lives, stirring conflicts and protests.
Future Planning
Planning for the future is an integral part of human sustenance, and it is not the past but a continuation of it. Hence, carrying forward Le Corbusier’s visions from the past and changing it to meet the present will help metamorphize Chandigarh into a future city. It is breaking free from the “superficial” design package it has been wrapped in for years and inducing original, fresh, inclusive, yet functional aspects that address the needs of the local population. However, integrating traditional or vernacular attributes into the developmental progression while adopting of since and technology as the prime focus may help the planners turn the city away from its “internationalism” tag towards “interculturalism” within a smart city (Begde,2000).
Key Smart City Functions
Source: Singh,T. (2023) Illustration showing elements of Smart approach
While overcoming the unregulated encroachment and tying the urban sprawl with a delineated planning methodology, and inducing the smart city approach may be favorable to the city’s future, there is a flipside to the situation. As described by Khosla (2015), introducing the smart city concept may be just a symbol of the “new” government’s aspirations for a new generation of Indians where inequality is a constant factor in all decision-making. Khosla (2015) questions the evolution of smart cities as a primary product of “global financial imagination.” He refers to this developmental approach as a giant corporation comprised of smaller corporations, impregnated with further smaller sub-corporations, all of whom are the primary stakeholders of any smart city development (Khosla, 2015).
The Smart City Experiment
The promise of an aspirational “Smart” Chandigarh may very well be an urban ambition by the governments in envisioning the identity and future of India within the global market. The “Smart City” experiment is an affirmative shot by the administration in response to global urbanization and environmental and climate change, predominantly aiming to place the country in the “first world” index (Hoffken & Limmer, 2019).
Hoffken and Limmer mention that when taking up such mammoth projects head-on, very publicly, there is always a risk of tensions between the projection of such projects vs. its actual implementation.
Reflections of a Material City in Chandigarh’s Development
Chandigarh, like most modern cities, is constantly battling urbanization. With the influx of population post-partition and local migration due to opportunities that a big city offers, the city is dealing with the troubles of a “Material City.” With continuous economic disposition, political agendas, housing problems, and social dynamics, the city constantly modifies its urban setup. This alteration helps adapt to the modern world and accommodates the amalgamation of classes, cultures, and the public-private sectors, maintaining the social order by implementing crime management measures (Singh & Sharma,2014). So, would it be fair to say this is a proper “Material City”? Maybe.
The disposition of the “city beautiful” and turning it into a highly efficient urbanized smart city comes with an underlying factor of immigration (Bauer,1980). Villages at the periphery of Chandigarh have shrunk and amalgamated with the exterior extents of the city due to the constant permeation. There is still evidence of spatial segregation in terms of the location of the villages and the accommodations created for them, highlighting the still prevailing caste system. However, the heavy migration and the permeation, as mentioned above, have improved the living conditions and have facilitated the migrants with access to urban resources and facilities (Bichsel, 1986).
While it is of great importance that the administration helps the migrants settle in urban spaces and give all citizens a chance at improved urban living conditions, this has also negatively impacted the existence of the villages by turning them into new ghost towns or slums. Therefore, as Chandigarh gears up to enhance its liveability index, the government must also implement planning policies to keep the smaller peripheral villages thriving (Bichsel, 1986).
Urbanization and the Smart City Ideas
Enrollment in the “Smart City Project” compels the municipality to urbanize the already overpopulated city by streamlining the population settlement from the periphery rural areas into Chandigarh. Furthermore, it improves its overall infrastructure while creating inviting spaces that interact with public realms, promoting car-free zones, making walkability a priority, and getting public spaces, like the Capitol Complex, added to UNESCO World Heritage List.
Chandigarh is not technically advanced, unlike other “Smart Cities” like Singapore, Oslo, or New York. Nevertheless, its experience of the rich French influence in its planning, urban infrastructure, practices, and cultural significance attracts significant attention (Jagannath, 2018).
Le Corbusier’s plan for Chandigarh was simple and less chaotic with its “self-contained, rectangular enclosing: sectors” laid in a grid plan flanked with dedicated widths of green space. Every sector planned to have a small shopping strip, school, health facility, community center, park, and other essential cultural and community facilities like places of worship. This planning principle takes up the notation of a healthy, sound, and flexible neighborhood delineated by the residents’ physical reach. Each sector is walkable, equipped with facilities, and has its unique identity (Wall & Waterman,2010). Some dedicated sectors facilitate the university, higher educational institutes, cultural organizations, and even the capital complex.
Source: Singh, T. (2023). Hand sketch showing a “Typical” sector with the green belts, the residences, the institutes, markets and other commercial zones to accommodate offices and healthcare.
However, unfortunately, over the years, the outer areas designated for the industries failed to comply with the sporadic growth. Like many other newer towns and cities, Chandigarh has faced critical advocation for its higher cost of living, low per-dwelling density, and high developmental costs. This disparity has led to a housing crisis with the increase in population (Vagele,1967).
This chaotic development ties into the expression that while cities are designed, created, and lived through as material objects, they constantly evolve and change. With its ever-changing occupants and unbound activities, Chandigarh can be conceptualized as “flux” (Inam,2014). The city may not be changing at any moment. However, over decades, Chandigarh has evolved and continues to transform.
Future Priorities
By adopting smart city priorities, the altered city master plan accommodates the peripheral change and population movement. Items like climate change, economic restructurings, e-commerce, and technological advancements have made it to the list. However, this change in the future city plans needs to address the consequences of the pandemics, global recessions, municipal bankruptcies, and the aging population (Khosla,2015).
Decisions remain heavily politicized in a developing country like India, where the state or large-scale private developers own most of the land. As a result, the decisions on paper appear inspiring but take quite a long to materialize, making this seem like a development that would support the notion of a material city (Singh & Sharma,2014).
As Wall and Waterman explain, cities are not just dwelling places for the population that resides there but also the concentration of political, cultural, societal, and economic institutions. Chandigarh, with its Capitol complex, is an excellent example of this notion. The authors of Urban Design Landscape Architecture also mention that towns and cities, when planned, are not created for the public good but rather to impress upon the public with the authority of the government and the administration. Unfortunately, today, public realms and their interaction with the local public are not the focus of design; instead, the economic value and corporate viewpoint are (Wall & Waterman,2010). Such planning policies create a single-line motive for city development and remove the idea of plurality.
Key elements of Pragmatism in Chandigarh’s future planning approach
Chandigarh is one of the few Indian cities with a rigid master plan established at its conception. However, urban development always pivots around the need of the hour, changes per social and economic context, space availability, or other factors that have compelled Chandigarh to break away from its initial planning.
With the mushrooming of unplanned satellite cities growing, the change must be accounted for and managed diligently, as it is easy to lose sight of potential development (Lindgree,2019).
Over the years, the encroachment in the “Periphery,” as Chalana (2015) quoted, has witnessed unplanned settlements, private and government projects, industrial projects, high-rise projects, and other developments, disputing the essence of the city limits. This infringement follows the “anti-foundationalism” that the pragmatic approach takes towards contingently developing cities that respond to their current needs. The existing masterplan of the city is quite glorified and served a purpose at the time of its creation. However, it does nothing to assess its lasting imprints on the population influx and other consequences of today’s urban problems.
Restructuring the Master Plan
Amendments to the master plan and taking Chandigarh one step further with the smart city initiative helps the administration respond to the residents’ global, political, and local needs and practices (Inam,2014).
With the transforming shape of Chandigarh, there is a civic consensus amongst the residents that the city must work towards becoming an intelligent city. An intelligent city that is not just committed to social equity, diversity, innovation, and integration of information technology but also to a sustainable environment and urban design, tying the unanimity of the new smart city approach with the social character of knowledge and recognizing the need for the growth within the city. In order to progress towards achieving the status of an intelligent or smart city, it is imperative to adopt the following five-stage approach (Singh & Sharma,2014).
Five stage approach towards a Smart city (Singh & Sharma,2014)
Source: Singh, T. (2023), Illustration showing the Five stage approach
As mentioned by Singh & Sharma (2014), to maximize the quality of life for the residents, the planning of a Smart City requires the infusion of local context and intelligence. For Chandigarh to progress toward this new developmental approach, it must pervade its approach with the three pillars of “Infrastructure, Operations, and People.” However, more evidently, these pillars work in coherence and integration with one another to intensify the efficiency of such an approach.
Three Pillars of a “Smart City” Approach (Singh & Sharma,2014)
Source: Singh, T. (2023), Illustration showing relation between “Three Pillars” of Smart City
Historical Implications
With its historical significance, Chandigarh’s planning approach has received positive and negative feedback.
Today, it becomes imperative to aid the contingency theories and let the past influences of Corbusier’s plan remain in place. However, the adoption and integration of new technology, urban planning, innovative infrastructure, smart governance entailing public-private participation, public and social services, transparency in governance, and laying political strategies in response to local perspectives along with other smart methods must also be emphasized (Singh & Sharma,2014).
While Chandigarh was the first planned city in India and was named one of the perfect cities of the world in terms of architecture, cultural growth, and modernization by BBC in 2015, however, Le Corbusier’s modernist vision for the city, with its monumentalism, linearity, and emphasis on” the Capitol Area” ties idealistically into the idea of scale and a sense of enclosure only, leaves it fragmentary (Tungare,2001).
The streetscape and vantage points created around this specific area through the street widths, the monumentalism of the buildings, and the view dictate a sense of authority. Corbusier plays with the height, width, and scale measures and engages with the spatial dimensions of these imposing buildings building a sense of enclosure (Wall & Waterman,2010).
Source: Ghinitoiu, L.. (2018). AD Classic: Mater Plan fir Chandigarh.
This rigid planning limits the city’s growth, introducing more employment opportunities or allocating land for future development.
Therefore, it is essential to propose experimentation in this city’s future planning and development to allow for a more usable city rather than being fixated on the city’s stark past. Furthermore, the ongoing developments around the city have pressured the city’s administration into upgrading the existing and preparing revised plans to address the “pragmatic stance” on the city expansion (Chalana,2015).
Way to Future Development
Modernization via social transformation of this modernist city, which holds a very individual ground and is reckoned as a symbol of a modern India, is a challenge. Breaking free from the shackles of the past experimentation and manipulation of form and layouts laid for Chandigarh will take efforts to re-evaluate the critical problems like retrofitting the legacy of the infrastructure, financing, governance, laying timelines and schedules, reassessing the master plan and other technical constraints (Singh & Sharma,2014).
However, with the utilization of the smart city experience and technology already set as examples around the world, Chandigarh has initiated its reinvention through simple steps like centralization of transportation, creating separate spaces for transit and people, augmenting the existing sidewalks and making the city more walkable by providing high-quality streets and public spaces and by prioritizing the “individual movement” that stresses on transformation for a pedestrian future (Wall & Waterman,2010).
Example : “Existing” desire line, Sector 10
Source: Vikram. (2023). How to Improve the Pedestrian Network? | Chandigarh Urban Lab. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from http://chandigarhurbanlab.org/democracy-and-the-modernist-city/.
Example :“Proposed” desire line, Sector 10
Source: Vikram. (2023). How to Improve the Pedestrian Network? | Chandigarh Urban Lab. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from http://chandigarhurbanlab.org/democracy-and-the-modernist-city/.
Example : Actual Pedestrian movement Example : Resulting Proposed Path
Source: Vikram. (2023). How to Improve the Pedestrian Network? | Chandigarh Urban Lab. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from http://chandigarhurbanlab.org/democracy-and-the-modernist-city/.
Master Plan Optimization and Implementation
Optimizing the current masterplan and accounting for the multiple smart city initiatives through various streams like innovative economic ventures, investment in smart social and capital ideas, futuristic governance, future-friendly transportation systems, and a sustainable environment may propel Chandigarh on the right path in achieving overall and absolute growth. Resulting in making it more livable and corresponding to its residents’ current and future expectations.
However, to build a smart city, a high level of planning must work in coherence with confronting technical, financial, academic, political, and environmental challenges.
Such initiatives are not just the responsibility of the governing bodies but also require dedication, support, and patience on the end of the residents. Moreover, they demand increased trust and accountability by the authorities and the citizens. The result of this perseverance on all ends can conclude in high standards of living, robust policies, a greener and cleaner environment, lower bills, better connectivity (physically and virtually), better services, and an overall better living experience (Jain & Jaiswal,2016).
Conclusion
While Chandigarh’s evolution into a smart city may tick most checkboxes of a material city, the uncertainty of the process, the conviction of the governing bodies, and the availability of economic resources always preponderate its material viability.
The lack of infrastructure, streamlined processes, education, and improper engagement of administration and locals can hamper progress.
The smart city initiative and its overall “concepts” of it also engage with the theory of pragmatism in its principles; however, it does ricochet closely to the “anything-goes” approach (Inam,2014). Therefore, the municipality must structure the process and adhere to the guidelines and deadlines for the smart city initiative to culminate into a positive experiment. Otherwise, this developmental strategy is prone to go astray.
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