THE CITY BEAUTIFUL, CHANDIGARH
INTRODUCTION
In 1950, India’s first prime minister. Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru. Commissioned the French Swiss architect Charles Edouard Jeanneret (“Le Corbusier”), to apply his artistic brain to bring up a well planned city based on contemporary ideas and that carries an idiosyncratic identity of its own. This led to the birth of The City Beautiful, Chandigarh. A Union territory as well as serving as a capital to two major states of India, Chandigarh stands upright with an essence of its own.
The final product of Architect Corbusier’s efforts was a city of concrete blocks and straight arterial roads, projecting Le Corbusiers philosophy of functional efficiency, free of unnecessary ornamentation such as domes and arches.
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Most of its residents have their roots belonging to an Indo-Aryan ethnic origin. There is lots of vividity among the different castes settled in Chandigarh. Say, even when a Jat and Khatri are next-door neighbours, some of their cultural traits vary a lot. These diversities add beauty and color to the cultural heritage of the city. Due to the diversity in the castes and culture of the people of Chandigarh, discovering parts and quarters of the place can be a leisurely experience for the travellers.
Jovial, Fun-loving as well as euphoric, these are the adjectives which describe the residents of this charming city. Here people believe in living life to the fullest. People in Chandigarh are accustomed to a leisurely lifestyle, which sets them apart from the residents of other major cities in India. A word that describes the city in the lifestyle arena is ‘à la mode’ meaning up to date. However, with the passing time, they are adopting themselves to a fast paced lifestyle. People in the city are very friendly and warm. Even when they live a very busy life, they try make it a point to dedicate some of their time to their loved ones and go for outing, especially during weekends, to some of the major attractions of the
A lot of modern architects and designers boasted the fact that they followed know existing style, some say modernism was a lot more than just a style, it was a new, refreshed and revived outlook on the world accustomed by new viewpoints of space and time. One of the most iconic ‘modern’ architects was Charles Edouard Jeanneret Gris, who took a great interest in exploring new materials, who rejected precedents from the past and pioneered simplicity. Charles Edouard Jeanneret Gris was born in Switzerland on October 6th 1887 and chose to be known as Le Corbusier. He initially worked in France, where he was most active, utilizing his many talents by being an architect, designer, writer, painter, urban planner and theorist. Corbusier started his academic life in 1900, as a goldsmith & engraver; he studied at La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland. Corbusier was taught the history of art, drawing and naturalist aesthetics of art nouveau by L’Eplattenier who Corbusier later, himself referred as his only teacher. Corbusier left his current studies at the time and progressed with his studies of art and decoration with the intention of becoming an artist/painter. It was L’Eplattenier who insisted that Corbusier studies architecture, and therefore organized some local projects that Corbusier could work on.
When talking about leadership positions within the community, the authors who were writing in the Antiquity along with some authors who were writing in the Renaissance strongly believed that men were the only ones capable of being in an elected position in the city. Christine de Pizan has a different opinion, expressing a strong argument for the strengths of women, while also demonstrating how a city without men could become an equally successful city. By using the allegorical figures of Reason, Rectitude, and Justice as her guide to constructing this city, she paints a picture of how women exhibit all of the traits of men while also having many qualities that men do not possess. Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies lays the foundation for how women can be successful in leadership positions and many of her ideas also match what the Greek philosopher Plato was saying through his book The Republic. The similarities of ideas in Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies and of Plato’s Republic for an ideal city and the inhabitants of these ideal cities proves that women are just as capable as men of populating and leading an ideal city.
For many years woman have been subordinated to men, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros a 1984 coming of age novel in which Esperanza is represented as the determination and hope for the woman in her poems but also the quest for a better life, and a promise to help those left behind under the suffering of the new traditions, crime, violence and sex. Cisneros' novel opened the doors to new ideas a new focus of the Chicano novel, In Mañana Means Heaven published in 2010 we begin to see a passive woman, Cisneros introduces the problems a woman faces while Hernandez sets the woman free of these injustices. Bea Franco represents the hope for woman, left behind in Cisneros' novel. Bea represents the emergence of willpower and self motivation to get out of the abusive relationship and find what she really deserves. Both these novels utilize different narratives, but both have a very earnest, hopeful, intimate tone. They both also share themes of struggle of self definition, sexuality and autonomy that through a life journey these woman are able to progress in a constrained society.
Throughout history, architecture has been employed in the service of politics, as symbols of the state. Architecture is therefore shaped by the national traditions in the pursuit of projects of identity, modernity, power, and prestige. A building is not merely a walled structure, but a metaphor for national ideology as it embodies the civic life of the citizens that it houses, as well as the ideals of the nation within which it resides. This paper will explore three varying architectural periods and examine the interaction between nationalism and the building styles that developed either as a means to express it.
Imagine a little girl, dreaming of the endless possibilities that she could be when she is older, then being rejected of her imagination because of her gender. In House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the reader is forced to consider personal dreams for the future, which is seen when Esperanza is left to choose what she wants her future to look like after seeing how the women in her neighborhood live, and when Marjane starts to think about what she wants to be when she grows up; this demonstrates that gender may impact your future it does not limit what you can be.
Designed around Corbusier’s Five Points system and with his own beliefs in functionalism and purism, the house is supported by twenty-five slender pilotis around its outer walls. On top of these pillars sits a reinforced-concrete second story, square in shape, with long rectangular windows framing most of the main unit. The top portion of the house features a terrace with enclosed wind break around a small garden. The ground floor of the house offers no immediate discernible entrance which forces the occupant to walk around the building and eventually up the spiral staircase to the roof. In keeping with his “five points of a new architecture,” Le Corbusier wanted the building to be elevated above the ground to allow accessibility to nature and human traffic. The second point he wanted was the creation of the roof garden which would replace the greenery normally inhabited by the building and incorporate it into the house itself. The open plan of the house features his third point, which is the separation of load-bearing pillars. The fourth point, which includes the strip windows was a response to provide more uniform light inside. The last point, the creation of a thin facade instead of a load-bearing wall was for aesthetic effect to create an abstract effect on the
In the early 1990’s, it was reported that eleven million women in the United States suffer from various eating disorders. At the same time, at least ninety percent of people struggling with eating disorders are female (Stephens). Many researchers tried to figure out why so many women today were suffering from these terrible conditions that destroy people from the inside out. After thorough amounts of research were done, it was concluded that today’s society generates intense amounts of pressure on women to fit an “ideal image” of the models they see in various ways. Thanks to false advertising, false images of women, and the changing “desires” of society, the Beauty Myth gives women an image of themselves that is physically impossible to achieve.
With the purpose of demonstrating “Le Corbusier and his architectonic expression”, Giedion began the text with a background information, which includes the influence brought to Le Corbusier by his father, mother, and his teacher, and then mentioned the theories, such as “concrete skeleton” and “five points” of this modern architect, after which is the detailed description of the plan and project of Le Corbusier. With the similar information provided in von Moos’s Le Corbusier: Elements of a Synthesis, Giedion also referred to the political factors leading the failure of Le Corbusier’s plan. The arranged and extensive information consists in a conclusive way, and compare to all the other four texts, Giendion’s work can be considered as the most general and inclusive writing of Le
Architectural Modernism imposed following the forms and styles of the past in favour of embracing contemporary technologies and opportunities. Industrialization and innovative methods of using iron, steel, and concrete for structural systems opened up new and flexible ways to design buildings that no longer depended on heavy masonry bearing walls. This essay will discuss the qualities of the Swiss Pavilion by Le Corbusier and the Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe and how they represent different approaches of the modern movement. A pavilion is a temporary exhibition building, it is usually built to provoke a message of the time through architecture. Both the pavilions that will be discussed in this essay
In the novel This Earth Of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, discrimination against social structure, race, and gender is apparent. The setting is in the Indies, or now called Indonesia. At that time, there are terms for different races in the book, which are “Native” indicating someone who is pure Indonesian, “Indo” a half European and half Indonesian, and “Pure Blood” or “European” when someone is pure European. An Indo and a Pure Blood receives more respect in society than a Native. Furthermore, European or Pure Blood is at the top of this social hierarchy, people who are European or Pure Blood receives the utmost respect in society. Differences in gender is prevalent in this novel, where most women in this book have power in their own homes, but in society is looked down upon. Female characters experiencing these are Annelies, the main character’s love interest, Nyai Ontosoroh, Annelies’ mother who is a concubine, and Magda Peters, the main character’s European teacher. Women in this novel are portrayed differently according to what race, social structure, and gender they are born in, which can be seen through Nyai Ontosoroh, Annelies, and Magda Peters.
The integrated vision of India is the one held up by its syncretic culture which transcends history. The wonderful tale that flows through time shows India in its splendour, in its conflict-ridden times as a fabric which absorbed the colours of other cultures that have seeped into it, exposing a design which has been enriched with time. With the task of constructing the amalgamated identity of India, she brings together the history and heritage for her purpose. The paper intends to investigate the cultural inclusiveness of India as explored by Qurratulain Hyder in River of Fire and reaffirm the notion of India as a civilisational society instead of a multicultural nation. It also seeks to challenge the concept of India as a multicultural society and advocate a civilisational one as proposed in the
In "A Woman's Beauty: Put-down or Power Source," Susan Sontag portrays how a woman's beauty has been degraded while being called beautiful and how that conceives their true identity as it seems to portray innocence and honesty while hiding the ugliness of the truth. Over the years, women have being classified as the gentler sex and regarded as the fairer gender. Sontag uses narrative structure to express the conventional attitude, which defines beauty as a concept applied today only to women and their outward appearance. She accomplishes this by using the technique of contrast to distinguish the beauty between men and women and establishing a variation in her essay, by using effective language.
Le Corbusier. The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1987
Along the border of Burma and Thailand, the “giraffe women” of the Karen tribe are known for their utilization of brass rings to extend the length of their neck. The Karen people live beside the Pai River, which divides Burma and Thailand. Within the Karen people, there is a subgroup of women known as the Padaung. Recognizable around the world for their wildly elongated necks, the Padaung women have practiced this custom for centuries. Although the reasoning for adorning their necks in this unique jewelry has changed throughout the years, the Padaung continue to carry out this tradition today.
Indian cinema has contributed a lot to the media and the entertainment industry over the years now and moulded the image of cinema in India in the eyes of the world. In the Generation we live in today, India has arrived at a stage where woman and men are treated equally; well almost equally. But there are still people, still industries and certain areas that do look down upon woman till date. And have we ever wondered why? There are many industries and reasons why woman are still looked down upon on. One of the industries being Cinema, The cinema over the years has only portrayed the image of woman as being in the house doing the chores or being dominated by