Le Corbusier: Album Punjab, 1951, edited by Maristella Casciato, presents a facsimile of the spiralbound notebook kept by Le Corbusier during his two-week visit to the area that would become Chandigarh — the new capital city of the Indian state of Punjab — a primary source document for one of the twentieth century’s most significant acts of urban planning.
About This Book
In March 1951, Le Corbusier travelled to India for the first time, visiting the site on which Chandigarh would be built. The notebook he kept during those two weeks — Album Punjab Simla, Chandigarh, Mars 1951 — records his written and sketched memos, personal reflections, and notes and schematic solutions developed during meetings with the small team of architects and governmental officials who, in only a few days, developed the outlines of the Chandigarh plan. It is one of the most important primary sources for understanding how the plan was conceived. The facsimile notebook is accompanied by a paperback volume featuring previously unpublished photographs by Le Corbusier’s cousin Pierre Jeanneret (1896–1967), who documented the landscape and people the architects encountered on arrival — a landscape destined to be completely transformed by the birth of the great city. A detailed commentary by architectural historian Maristella Casciato traces the story of those days and reflects on the range of topics assembled in the notebook.
Key Features
- Facsimile of Le Corbusier’s spiralbound notebook from March 1951
- Previously unpublished photographs by Pierre Jeanneret
- Commentary by Maristella Casciato, Senior Curator and Head of Architecture Special Collections at the Getty Research Institute
- Reprint edition of the noted 2024 publication
What You'll Discover
- Le Corbusier’s thinking process in real time as the Chandigarh plan was being conceived
- The landscape and people of Punjab before the city’s construction, through Jeanneret’s photographs
- The range of topics — civic organisation, landscape, programme, scale — addressed during a pivotal few days
- How the notebook functions as a primary source for understanding one of the twentieth century’s most debated urban projects
About the Author
Maristella Casciato is an architect and architectural historian, currently Senior Curator and Head of Architecture Special Collections at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. She was previously a full professor at the University of Bologna and has curated major exhibitions including ‘Casablanca Chandigarh: Reports on Modernization’ at the Canadian Centre for Architecture.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 208
- Dimensions: 23.4 x 31.5 cm
- Language: English / French
- ISBN: 9783037787069
- Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers
- Publication Date: 2024
Perfect For: Architects, architectural historians, and anyone interested in Le Corbusier, the history of Chandigarh, modernism in India, and the relationship between drawing, travel, and design thinking