Close your eyes and imagine, what do you see when you think of an ‘Urban Space’. Where do you imagine yourself being, are you sitting somewhere, with whom? Is it an open space amidst nature, trails where you are walking alone, or a cafe you love in a mall nearby, sitting and sipping coffee? Let us dwell on this a little further, what if i say imagine walking in an urban space, what do you think of it. Do you see yourself walking in a park, or a parking lot, or struggling to find space to walk even?
Urban public spaces are the dots in between a city that connect the various built-up forms and parts of a city. They allow for the much-required pauses to exist in an ever-moving city. These are the freely accessible spaces that are open to the public and encourage deliberate interactions. They are in a true sense “The spaces owned by the public” and there is no class or any other bias present in their existence and usage. Such spaces have always existed in India and the world over and now with the rising urbanization they are diminishing in our cities. That is why it is imperative to talk about them. Anybody even remotely related to architecture knows about Le Corbusier and his magnum opus- Chandigarh Modern City of India.
Case of Chandigarh-Sector 17
The design for Chandigarh, the new capital of the north Indian states Punjab and Haryana was done by the great Swiss Architect Le Corbusier. The city in Nehru’s words was to be unfettered by tradition and built to define the newly Independent India’s future. It was planned and developed from 1955-1966.
Chandigarh being the first planned city and that too by a Swiss architect was given this huge institutionalised Urban Space for retail in the shape of Sector 17. It was a novel experience for the time it was built and Sector 17 had institutional buildings and banking areas on the periphery. In contrast, the central part had the Shopping Piazza, quite like European city centre areas. Sector -17 can be described as an open-minded public space as defined by Michael Walzer as it is s place where a variety of uses co-exist and are tolerated. It is also an inclusive public space. Initially, it used to have high-end brands and the upper middle class and upper class would come for shopping while the rest of the people would come to roam around the Piazza and grab the Softy-Icecream in a cone and enjoy the environment.
Chandigarh was Corbusier’s brutalist experiment at an urban scale. Chandigarh set in the foothills. It was built initially for 5 lakh population now Chandigarh region has a population of 12.4 lakh which includes Chandigarh and two cities- S.A.S. Nagar in Punjab and Panchkula in Haryana. Now there is a new township named New Chandigarh which has been planned by Punjab adjacent to the Education city, Chandigarh to garner the benefits of Chandigarh.
As the population of Chandigarh has increased over the years, Sector 17 has faithfully continued to serve as a major Urban Retail Space, it was positioned centrally by Corbusier and placed close to the Capitol Complex and the Green landscaped gardens like the Leisure Valley and Rose Garden which run across the city from North East of the city to South West. The central location and the vast emptiness of the Piazza was inviting and somewhat similar to Indian Bazaars, but with ample space. You could walk around in the shaded corridor and the outdoor paved Piazza, as per the weather’s kindness, and enjoy the small vendors and hawkers selling street food, balloons to fake sunglasses. Was it a successful experiment considering Indians and their shopping streets prior to this were in the fixed urban street imagery of – a narrow street laden with various options , less or no space to walk and as many more people around? Sector 17 did not offer this intimate an experience, but it did succeed as an Urban Space, which is again debatable.
Rejuvenation of Sector-17
Over the years as ‘Malls’ developed allover India with growing urbanization and commercialization. The Indian street markets have taken a back seat and that is what has happened in Sector 17. Ever since the early 2000’s it became stagnant and had become a folklore. The fault also lay with the administration which froze with any developmental change owing to the pressure that lay beneath Corbusier’s legacy. As Sector 17 comes under the Heritage list as per Chandigarh Master Plan 2031, the effort to restore its lost glory began in 2018. The Administration engaged a consultant for the uplift and rejuvenation of the city centre.
The plan involves the upkeep of existing facades of buildings and the upgradation of open areas , making open air theatre near the Commissioner’s office, an urban park to add more life in the Piazza, making ramps to make the whole Piazza and shops accessible, a skating park and an underpass connecting Sector 17 to Rose garden. A few of these projects have already been completed and there is already a positive impact which can be seen.
This effort of the administration is surely the right step to revive the lost glory of Sector 17. It also shows the impact and value that a well-designed urban space holds in a city’s history. As years go by and as Chandigarh city gets its Heritage status owing to its growing recognition and popularity in the world, Sector 17 will change and revive with the times yet also be a part of the city’s folklore.
References:
SOBTI, MANU P. “Withering Public Space in Chandigarh: Transforming Retail and Social Choreographies in the Neoliberal Indian Mall.” Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, vol. 33, no. 2, 2022, pp. 47–58. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27190880. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
The Walkable Sector 17 in Chandigarh, Author: Parva Yadav, February 19,2024, Available at: https://www.joinpaperplanes.com/the-walkable-sector-17-in-chandigarh/,Accessed 20 Nov, 2024
Urban Systems Design, Perry P.J. Yang, Yoshiki Yamagata in Urban Systems Design, 2020, Available at:https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/urban-spaces, Accessed 21 Nov,2024
Oh! To be 17 again, Author Deepak Yadav, June 10,2018, Available at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/oh-to-be-17-again/articleshow/64526499., Accessed: 19 Nov ,2024
