4. The Capitol Complex

In the fourth episode, we discuss the implications of the UNESCO Heritage designation for the Capitol Complex on Chandigarh. We discuss Corbusier's process of siting the Capitol and its connection to cubism and the cosmos. We also talk about the intentionally open-ended quality of the Capitol Complex and how it relates to the future of citizenry and a faith in the nation's future. 

TIMESTAMPS:

1:08 - The UNESCO Heritage Tag for the Capitol Complex and its consequences. Which parts of the city were included and why wasn’t the whole city included?

5:31 - Barbed wire, controlled access to the Capitol and guided tours

6:01 - Eurocentric exclusion of Jeanneret and other architects from UNESCO recognition

10:44 - The Capitol as Corbusier’s tour de force

14:39 - The siting of the buildings in the Capitol

17:00 - Corbusier and cubist architecture

21:37 - Corbusier’s fascination with India’s rural landscape and integration of the city and the village.

25:06 - Monumentality, temples and the cosmos in relation to the Capitol

30:48 - Buildings as celestial objects; the Capitol and its invocation of the sky

34:30 - The ‘East-West’ dichotomy and the change in perception of Chandigarh after the 70s and postmodernism

40:31 - Corruption, the Emergency and the attack on Nehruvian modernism

44:05 - The Open Hand, Nehru’s Non-Aligned Movement and the Third World. 

46:52 - The open-ended, leaky Capitol Complex

49:28 - Citizenry, anticipatory democracy and nation building in the context of Chandigarh and India

52:49 - Aesthetic masterpieces of Le Corbusier OR crowning achievements of the aspirations of the Indian nation state and its faith in the future?