24 Nov : The Indian Institute of Architects, Chandigarh-Punjab Chapter in association with the Goethe Zentrum Max Mueller Bhawan, Chandigarh present a photo exhibition by German photographer Barbara Hoegner (Frankfurt) entitled “Horizontal City! Vertical Village – Living with Le Corbusier in Chandigarh and Berlin”. The photos visualize Chandigarh as a place highly appreciated by its inhabitants, who enjoy working as well as their family life in the modernist setting. Likewise the images taken in the Le Corbusier building in Berlin cover the unique architecture as well as the individually designed homes. The presentation of both portfolios emphasizes the conceptional framework of the photographer: A cross-cultural perspective on the various approaches and challenges towards a creation by world-class architect Le Corbusier. The exhibition attempts to contribute to the Indo-German cultural relation: The visitors may discover universal aspects in living together, such as being neighbours, sharing emotions and dealing with a modernist heritage. The juxtaposition of the two different worlds, both struggling with a certain monotony among Le Corbusier’s principles, reveals a similar human approach in developing “a sense of belonging”.
In the 1950s the architect had worked simultaneously on various projects, among them his first and only realization of an urban planning for a new city – Chandigarh in India. The city extends horizontally, as the by-laws foresaw low-rise housing areas according to Indian needs and tradition. At the same time the construction of several large dwelling units (so-called “Unite d’ Habitations” and sometimes also named “machines for living”) went on in Europe. One of these “vertical villages” is located in the German capital Berlin in close neighbourhood to the famous Olympic Stadium. The basic idea of a “vertical village” was to have around 500 flats for 2000 people in one block. They are connected internally with long corridors (called “internal streets”). The organization of daily life inside the building enables a maximum in efficiency and provides comfort for the people. The majority of flats is of double storey type with a stair inside the home and a large verandah. This construction mode gives a feeling of having “a house inside’ a house” to the inhabitants. Despite extending in two different directions – horizontal and vertical. – the two urban concepts by Le Corbusier as realized in Chandigarh and Berlin, share the idea of providing sun, space and nature for a comfortable living in today’s modem city life.
Being a photo journalist as well as a cultural anthropologist, Barbara Hoegner focuses in her documentation on the social life within these specific architectural settings, hereby making the visitor discover the “India-ness” and the “German-ness” of the respective places. Her series on Chandigarh includes the remarkable buildings of the master architect at the Capital Complex as well as all types of city events from an annual garden festival to religious celebrations. Likewise the images from Berlin cover the unique architecture, representing the “ocean liner” as source of inspiration for the shape of the Le Corbusier multi-storey buildings in Europe. His idea of a simple lifestyle in long-streched flats of equal size – called “cells for living” – was transformed by the owners, who today have a range in their interiors design from fully stuffed places to minimalistic interpretations. Individual ways of establishing a personal life in the master architect’s creations may be seen in the exhibition.
Barbara Hoegner started her photographic documentary work on Le Corbusier in Chandigarh in 2005. Her city portrait “Living with Le Corbusier – Photographs from Chandigarh” with a variety of 80 coloured photographs was presented at the Museum for World Cultures in Frankfurt as part of the cultural program during the International Book Fair. The success of this exhibition led to the appointment as “artist-in-residence” by the residents’ welfare association in the Le Corbusier building in Berlin. The pictures about life in the so-called “vertical village” were published as a book by renowned Berlin publisher la VIS-Verlag on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the building in 2008.
The exhibition now on view in Chandigarh was curated exclusively for the City Beautiful. It consists of74 coloured pictures in total, grouped in pairs: One image from Chandigarh next to one from Berlin. The images represent the material structures to be found in both places and the application of a similar colour concept, as well as the various ways of “growing into the architecture” and dealing with the heritage by the people of both countries. The show was generously sponsored by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, New Delhi and
“IF A” – German Institute for Foreign Relations in Stuttgart/Germany. A broschure with 24 pages will be launched during an event at the German Embassy in Delhi in December. Copies will be given to the Government Museum in Chandigarh as donation, to be sold in the museum shop at a nominal rate.