Chandigarh Capitol Complex

Description

The Capitol Complex, located in Sector-1 of Chandigarh in India, is a government compound designed by the architect Le Corbusier. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016. It is spread over an area of around 100 acres and is a prime manifestation of Chandigarh's architecture. It comprises three buildings: the Palace of Assembly or Legislative Assembly, Secretariat Building and the High Court plus four monuments - Open Hand Monument, Geometric Hill, Tower of Shadows and the Martyrs Monument - and a lake.

Constructed, 1952

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Secretariat Building

The Open Hand Monument

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Both geographically and symbolically, the Capitol Complex occupies the compositional apex of the Chandigarh Plan. Located at the foot of the Shivalik Hills, together with the “Rajendra Park” stretching away on its western flank and Lake Sukhna to the east, it forms the Capitol Park, extending across the width of the city.

It is the largest monumental complex designed and built by Le Corbusier. He designed the three main buildings that make it up – the Palace of the Assembly, the Secretariat and the High Court of Justice – but also the furniture, the luminaries, the bas-reliefs moulded in the concrete, as well as works of art like the enamelled door of the Palace of the Assembly and a series of monumental tapestries.

The Capitol mixes primary forms taken from Purist geometry with Brutalist expression punctuated by a polychromy of bold colours contrasting with the monochrome appearance of the raw concrete.

1952 - Constructed

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The composition of the site results from the desire to integrate the architecture into the landscape and the desire to reconcile man, nature and the cosmos.

1952 - Constructed - Drawings and documents

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The three primary buildings are located on a pedestrian esplanade punctuated by other posthumous Corbusean creations: the Monument of the Open Hand, the Depth of Consideration, the Martyrs’ Memorial, the Tower of Shadows, the Geometrical Hill, as well as the reflecting pools of the High Court and the Assembly.

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