USC Price School of Public Policy Adjunct Associate Professor Vinayak Bharne is a contributing author to the new book Chandigarh Rethink: Transforming Ruralities & Edge(ness) in Global Urbanities, edited by Professor Manu Sobti of University of Queensland, Australia.
Chandigarh Rethink is a fresh and provocative take on one of India’s most iconic cities — because it shifts the discourse far beyond its Corbusian veil. It focuses instead on the potential of two villages — Kansal, located to the Capitol’s north-west; and Badheri, located within the city itself. What do these rural habitats mean for Chandigarh’s future? How and why does the discourse on Chandigarh’s architecture and urbanism change as we look at these places?
Bharne’s chapter looks at the original intentions versus unforeseen legacies of Chandigarh (designed by Le Corbusier), and its contemporary, the village of New Gourna in Egypt (designed by Hassan Fathy). Both these iconic places have assumed guises that none of their original patrons and designers had anticipated. Why did this happen? What lessons do these stories bear?