City Scape

Architect Sangeet Sharma’s Corb’s Capitol is a journey through Chandigarh & its architecture,the quasi-fictional stories analyzing the city’s transformation & metamorphosis

“There is no book available that talks about behavioural changes that have taken place in Chandigarh in the last six decades. No one has analyzed its transformation and metamorphosis. At best,people have sung praises of Le Corbusier’s planning and design,but nobody has judicially felt the need to introspect. I took it on me to do this,’’ Sangeet Sharma,architect and author talks about his latest book,“Corb’s Capitol”. The book focuses on Chandigarh Architecture and culminates in the Capitol Complex. The book is in the style of one-to-one conversations. The protagonists of the book are architects who came to visit Chandigarh and the author takes them around. Out of the seven protagonist in the book,two of them are foreigners and Mahendra Raj,the structural designer of most of the buildings of Complex,along with BV Doshi and SD Sharma,all eminent architects of country. The stories are quasi-functional,with actual dialogues and statements that took place between the visitors and author. A journey through Chandigarh,wit and creativity are the hallmarks of the book,“I believe in educating through entertaining,’’ smiles Sangeet,who has the book translated into French,Spanish and Italian.

The author clarifies that the book is not about Le Corbusier,his architecture and planning alone,it is how the citizens have adopted to the planning strategies and the system of architectural spaces that Le Corbusier gave to Chandigarh. People and personalities,population and slums; buildings and their deterioration; Panchkula and Mohali; traffic and its problems; administration and their policies,“in short,it’s about Chandigarh and its eccentricities,’’ Sangeet smiles.

As to why everything culminates in the Capitol Complex,Sangeet believes the complex is the greatest contribution of Le Corbusier in Chandigarh,where his life-long ideologies and his design principles took shape. “They are the most daring and bold statements of human aspirations,’’ Sangeet has touched upon lesser known marvels like the tower of shadows,the martyrs Memorial and the Trench of Contemplation too. “I do not preach anything nor conclude. I bring to the reader in an interesting,witty and humorous way to look at Chandigarh from beginning to date and discover its meaning. I do not induce sentiment – I simply compel the reader to derive one. So far so good,what next,it’s a wake up call for eveyone,’’ sums up the architect.