13 feb : A team of six architects and art historians from Switzerland have come to Chandigarh on a study tour. The participants are Prof Gilles Barbey, Architect from Lausanne; Prof Jacques Gubler, Architect Historian; Dr Edmond Charrière, Art Historian; Ar Georges Berthoud from Geneva who expertise in Housing developments; Ms Marie-Jose de Quevedo, a Philanthropist from Geneva; and Dr Marc Hostettler, Editor, Conceptor of Cultural Events. They shall be studying Housing types and planning issues in Chandigarh. The architects shall be delivering lectures at Chandigarh College of Architecture also.
All the dignitaries have done substantial work in the area of architectural developments in Switzerland and abroad.
As a part of their programme, IIA Chd-Pb Chapter and Saakaar Foundation organised Indo-Swiss Symposium on “Learning From La Chaux-De-Fonds To Chandigarh” on Sunday, 13th February, 2011 at Auditorium of Government Museum & Art Gallery, Chandigarh. Mr Kanwar Sandhu, Managing Editor, Day & Night News was the Chief Guest of the Symposium. The basic aim of the Symposium was to ascertain a co-relationship between La Chaux-De-Fonds, the birth place of Le Corbusier with Chandigarh, the place where he did the major works of his life. The Symposium was an attempt to trace Le Corbusier’s journey from Switzerland to France to India and lessons learnt thereof.
Mr Kanwar Sandhu highlighted the changes that have occurred in Chandigarh in the past half-a-century. He appreciated the efforts of both Swiss and Indian architects to collaborate to organise this Symposium.
Ar Surinder Bahga, Chairman, IIA Chd-Pb Chapter spoke about the theme of the Symposium as a tribute to Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret as great architects.
Dr S.S. Bhatti delivered the Keynote address. He spoke about the lessons learnt from Chandigarh Experiment and how we can implement them in reality.
Mr Jacques Gubler and Mr Edmond Charrière from Switzerland gave their presentation on “Learning From La Chaux-De-Fonds To Chandigarh”.
Ar Rajesh Mehta from Rajkot, Gujarat highlighted the work of Le Corbusier in Ahmedabad. He highlighted that he was the pioneer for universalism of architecture and
the universalism rejects the idea of indigenous or region specific
architecture. Ahmedabad which was compared by Le Corbusier with
Acropolis, has been an excellent platform where he had experimented
to respect culture at all levels of architecture and used own theory,
elements and the forms. The concluding part will prove that Ahmedabad had been an excellent platform or lab where he made extra ordinary experiment in architecture which made a great impact at national level.
Dr Gilles Barbey from Switzerland highlighted the Culture & Housing of Switzerland and Chandigarh. Apart from Le Corbusier’s work, he discussed the works of Pierre Jeanneret. He elaborated that Environment Behavior Studies are very important for Housing studies.
Ar Jeet Malhotra, a close associate of Le Corbusier talked about his experience with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret at Chandigarh. He called Pierre Jeanneret as his ‘Guru’.
Ar Jit Kumar Gupta, Vice President, IIA, Mumbai and Archana Chaudhary, Architect, Housing Board Haryana chaired the sessions.
The Installation Ceremony of the newly elected IIA, Chd-Pb Chapter Executive Committee for the team 2010-12 was also done. For the second term, Mr Surinder Bahga & Mr Rakesh Bansal were unanimously elected Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively.