The Chandigarh Challenge: Balancing cultural heritage and urban development

Following the partition of British India into Pakistan and India in 1947 the government of India decided to build Chandigarh as a new capital for Punjab. The aim was to create a modern planned city that would represent the aspirations of the newly independent nation. This commission was given to Le Corbusier, who developed the renowned masterplan for Chandigarh together with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and a team of Indian architects such as Aditya Prakash and Balkrishna Doshi. With a projected population increase of 35 % by 2035, the Chandigarh metropolitan region serves as an illustrative case study of dynamic urbanization in India. This leads to a conflict of interests between the aim to preserve the central part of the city and the urgent needs of urban development. Would it have been in Le Corbusier's interest to design the city as a living museum or did the team of urban planners intend to create constantly renewing urban structure? This paper presents the results of an urban design studio that developed alternative scenarios for a balanced urban transformation, taking into account the pioneering character of Le Corbusier's masterplan, and examine answers for the city of the 21st century in terms of density, new housing and functional mix, sustainability and climate adaptation. With a ´research by design´-methodology several teams created innovative concepts that in the sense of ‘What if...?’ scenarios - show how cultural heritage and urban development could be balanced. The design teams interpreted the site in different ways and derived urban visions for future development. What all contributions have in common is a re-densification strategy with the addition of new functions combined with a re-organization of parking and qualification of the existing public spaces. These design projects provide a valuable basis for further planning steps. By comparing the proposed urban design scenarios, important findings can be derived for the discussion about the various alternative options of future urban transformation of Chandigarh