To commemorate the inauguration of Chandigarh on October 7, 1953 by Dr Rajendra Prasad, the city would be celebrating it’s second Heritage Festival this October. While preparations for the big day are on, there are plans to have a Heritage Walk in the morning, starting from the Open Hand Monument and culminating at the Chandigarh War Memorial, including morning ragas at Sukhna Lake followed by an evening of Sufi music at the Open Hand Monument.
A seminar will be held at the Chandigarh College of Architecture. Plans are to illuminate all of the important architectural works of Le Corbusier in the city, primarily the Capitol Complex, Open Hand Monument and UT Secretariat.
Talking about the event with FE, architect Hafeez Contractor, who would be in the city as the key speaker in a seminar, said Le Corbusier was “one of the great architects of modern times”. But, the city is too regimented in terms of building bylaws etc. A lot more could have been done in the city to meet current needs of a changing world,” he said.
Notably, the Heritage Festival is important for the city as it is vying for a place in the list of World Heritage Sites to be decided by UNESCO. Chandigarh, interestingly happens to be the only work of Le Corbusier where a complete plan of urban settlement was implemented as envisioned by him. And if Chandigarh makes it to the list, it would join the league of world famous sites like Tel Aviv, Brasilia and Le Havre (France). Any decision on the issue would happen only 2009, since all the countries would be submitting their entries by January 2008 and the entire process shall take one and a half year.
