Bärbel Högner Knihy

1951 beauftragten indische Regierungsvertreter Le Corbusier zur Mitarbeit an einem ambitionierten Vorhaben, dem Bau von Chandigarh, Indiens größtem postkolonialen Städtebauprojekt. Skulpturale Architekturen und ein vom rechten Winkel geprägter Masterplan zeichnen seither Chandigarhs urbanes Gefüge aus. Heute, 50 Jahre nach dem Tod Le Corbusiers, leben über eine Million Menschen in der sogenannten 'City Beautiful'. Bärbel Högner untersucht den von wechselseitiger Beeinflussung geprägten Entwurfsprozess der Planstadt und beleuchtet erstmals die soziale Seite des künstlich geschaffenen Stadtraums. Dabei wird deutlich, dass Le Corbusiers Regelwerk lokalen Gepflogenheiten gerecht wird: Seine Vision der 'funktionellen Stadt' erfährt eine eigene Interpretation.

In the nineteen-fifties the architectural profession turned its gaze towards India where Le Corbusier had been commissioned to build an ideal modern city. Today, Chandigarh is a pulsating metropolis while, at the same time, the originally planned city was able to retain its garden city character. In her extensive urban portrait, the photographer and ethnologist Ba rbel Ha ndel investigates the alleged contradiction between European modernism and Indian lifestyle. This book presents a range of photographs and texts that exemplify the local modernism of the gesamtkunstwerk that is Chandigarh. With ethnographic flair, the author looks at the adoption of the star architect's systems of rules and regulations. Alternating between architecture and scenes from daily life, her images paint a multifaceted picture of "Living with Le Corbusier" in this unique planned city in India.

Upon completing the eponymous Le Corbusier Building in Berlin in 1958, the pioneering Modernist architect Le Corbusier described the building as rising up to, a monumental size without taking from any of its parts their respect for the individual, physical and subjective dimension. Le Corbusier had confronted Berliners, in their divided city, with his concept of communal living--a 17-story reinforced-concrete building containing 557 apartments, with only nine corridors to provide access to all of them. Le Corbusier's "machine for living" still influences the inhabitants of the building, yet no matter the architect's intention, it is ultimately the building's residents that give a house its life. Ethnologist and photographer Bärbel Högner was well aware of this when she moved into the Le Corbusier building as artist-in-residence in 2007. Her findings are published in this stunning volume, which features images of the interplay between residents and Le Corbusier's architectural masterwork.