India's Planned Capital City (Designed by Le Corbusier)

Resources:

This video is a synthesis of these articles:

3. Fitting, P. (2002). Urban planning/utopian dreaming: Le Corbusier's Chandigarh today. Utopian Studies, 13(1), 69-93.

Produced by Dave Amos in sunny Sacramento, California.
Edited by Eric Schneider in cloudy Cleveland, Ohio.

[CityBeautiful]

Shoutout to all of the people watching this video to get inspiration for their next Cities: Skylines session!

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

The reconstruction of Pyongyang is impressive too, my grandpa rebuilt it from a destroyed war zone to a prosperous capital. The US pretty much destroyed the city and he was able to fix it

[BadlanderOutsider]

>Designed by Le Corbusier


Oh no.

[mr.whatever]

I'm from Kolkata, India.
I have visited Chandigarh, believe me it's the best city I have ever seen. So green, wide roads with no congestion, beautiful buildings, made me feel like I'm not in any typical Indian city.
It's my dream to settle in Chandigarh.

[samuelfortin]

Everytime I hear Le Corbusier, I shriek and despair over the tragic death of functionality I'm about the hear about, again.

[obonkey]

Would be cool if you talked about the old Aztec capital Tenochtitlán

[SirPerceval]

Le Corbusier's buildings are even more soul crushing than the Soviet architecture I grew up around.

[the_bhady]

Interesting coincidence - Chandigarh‘s official nickname is “the city beautiful”

[aniseedus]

I visited Chandigarh for the first time just last month in Feb 2020. Cgarh is not the only planned city (there is Navi Mumbai, New Delhi, etc.) but it is the best one. A very good blend of spacious and coziness. A great change coming from the rest of crowded cities feeling of India.
PS: I get the critisism, but lots of places with tons of 'character' (looking at you Chandini Chowk) gets overwhelming after 2 days.

[lalit]

As a Chandigarh native, thank you for making this video. I was wondering when my favourite channel would talk about my favourite city.
Most of the negative comments are probably from salty fellow Indians who live in comparative waste dumps like Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore. (Don't lynch me I'm just kidding)

More seriously though, I'll add my 2 rupees here:
I was born and raised in the City and spent the first 22 summers there, before moving out.
Chandigarh fails to impress if you just visit the place as a tourist. What makes the city great is the livability. While other Indian cities are bursting at the seams, Chandigarh has still managed to retain some of its sleepy, laid-back character despite the rapid growth and expansion.
The fields of Punjab and the mighty Himalayas are also an hour's drive away. ( This is what I personally miss the most).
The biggest downside, I'll admit, is the over-reliance on cars. The people here are solidly upper-middle class and there's the Punjabi love for big cars and SUV's to boot.
However, the govt. has created cycling tracks throughout the city, the place is already very pedestrian friendly and the Govt. is mulling on a rapid transport system (Metrorail, BRTS or monorail, we'll see).

[exploman]

I find Corbusiers vision of cities and architecture horrible i could cry. Thank god he didnt turn beauties like Paris into cubic concrete hells

[justanothersam]

Le corbusier seems weirder the more I learn about him

[mantegadokarite]

Just pointing out a common mistake about Brasilia: although Niemeyer took the credit for planning the new Brasil's capital, it was another architect who did it. Lucio Costa was the one who won the contest to plan the new Capital's urbanism (it is a really interesting story actually, worthy the research). Niemeyer, who worked for Costa for a long time as interne, was responsible only for the buildings, the architecture itself.

[ludovicoc]

Le Corbusier is French for "The Ugly."

[gigglysamentz]

0:57 Omg it is literally called The City Beautiful! Is that why you stumbled upon it? XD

[ultimatestoryteller]

I am born and brought up in Chandigarh and interestingly I'm also familiar with Le Corbusier's other works. Honestly if you ask me, Chandigarh would easily be his greatest creation and infact the only successful one. It's well planned, atleast 80% greener than your average Indian cities and has one of the most civilized and educated native population. The public transport is efficient and timely, the police is disciplined and enforces the rules stringently and despite having no metro or rapid transit system, their is not even any need of having one. Chandigarh is nicknamed "City Beautiful" and their is a strong reason why it's said so. I have lived all over India in last 12 years and trust me, Chandigarh is the cleanest and best cities I have ever seen. If you're an Indian and haven't been here, you must visit atleast once before becoming a keyboard warrior and justifying how your so called "old city" has more life. If you're not from India, visit all Indian cities before and then visit Chandigarh to see the difference yourselves.

[sugandhakohli]

As a resident of Chandigarh, when this video came up in my recommendation, I was confused for a moment. You see, Chandigarh is also called "The City Beautiful". (Also visible on the signboard at 0:53) I at first thought this channel named "City Beautiful" was affiliated to Chandigarh City Authority. XD
Great video. You earned a sub.
Chandigarh is like planned heaven in the midst of a poorly planned Punjab and Haryana. But thanks to the Tricity area (Chandigarh-Mohali-Panchkula) and the lessons learned from them, the rest of the cities are fast evolving into planned cities.
The Tricity area has everything, from posh malls to serene lush gardens to man-made and natural lakes. As another comment has pointed out, the only drawback is the public transport system. Although the CTU (Chandigarh Transport Union) buses are quite abundant and usually punctual, yet most households have at least 2 or more vehicles. Uber and Ola (Indian Uber) have made things somewhat different though.

[FlorentPlacide]

Le Corbusier seems to have been such an arrogant and self-absorbed person. Beware of people reasoning in absolutes ! (No, I'm not saying Le Corbusier was a Sith ;) )

[marcosv.ribeiro]

Niemeyer did not design Brazil's capital city, it was Lucio Costa who design it, Niemeyer "only" did the buildings on the monumental axis and the palaces.

[Mr.RohitRajput]

I'm living in Chandigarh watching this video and never knew such beautiful historic progressions behind this city's design.