Re- configuring the landscape of leisure valley parklands, Chandigarh

Abstract

Every time you think of a city which is planned, you think of it as an ideal city where you find buildings and open spaces. And when you find open spaces, make it so people can get to them. Nature in all its forms is free from boundaries of any sort. So why do we bind them amongst tangible elements in spaces where it is most important not to. -A uthor Chandigarh City has a beautiful natural landscape used comprehensively by Corbusier in city planning. The site comprised of a scenic frame of shivalik hills ; the slightly sloping landform ; seasonal rivulets on its north-western and south-eastern flanks ; and an eroded valley running through its heart called "leisure valley." Leisure valley was conceived as a long parkland curving through the city centre, from the very beginning to maintain a central green space in the heart of the city, order to allow an unbroken view of the profile of the capital complex's "buildings" against the beautiful backdrop of the hills of Shivalik. It was supposed to form an uninterrupted stretch of' verdure,' more viewable on Chandigarh master plan's color renderings than on the actual city site. The city's green space is distressed, which was aimed to nourish body and spirit. In reality, leisure valley is a space that is disconnected. Disconnect between similar spaces creates a barrier and space discontinuity. The parkland runs confined and restricted through the city, away from actual use. The landscape and open space design of Chandigarh began to take shape in response to the combined impacts of the idealized vision of Le Corbusier, subsequent evolutions of the city involving the product of designers such as M.S. road planting. Product of Randhawa and Non designer like Nek Chand's new lake. In 1952, a Landscape Advisory Committee for Chandigarh capital project was founded at the planning stage, but no master plan for the new city's landscaping was developed. (Bhatti, 2014) The existence of the city has been 66 years and no master plan for landscape design has been developed to date. The landscape master plan is important to re-examine the landscape of the use of green rendered spaces in the city master plan in order to create a cohesive, viable landscape and provide direction for the future use of green spaces in the landscape. Landscape is the ground from which needs and intentions are abstracted to Patrick Geddes. It is the city-in-evolution's real ingredient. Landscape, in other words, is the life-force that connects people to the city. The leisure valley is mentioned as a designer product to be transformed into a receptacle. The first designer's product has been transformed into new theme gardens, parks, stadiums, and recreation spaces. (Cunha, Landscape as an active ingredient-Patrick Geddes in Chandigarh, 2002) Le Corbusier is said to have failed to recognize his town today1. Many judgments are passed and learnings on the basis of the stated intentions of the designer or, more generally, the case, intentions reasoned or assumed by a theorist, a criticisms or a reflective designer. But not all of them have so negatively judged Le Corbusier. Charles Correa credits him for making the people of India aware of the power of the designer's intention to transform a given receptacle into a city-in-evolution product (Cunha, Landscape as Active Ingredient— Patrick Geddes in Chandigarh, 2002). The polarized viewpoints on Le Corbusier and Chandigarh are a more extreme version of what happens since most designed products are evaluated. Underlying the controversy over whether they are good or bad, successful or unsuccessful, useful or useless is crediting designers ' ability to drive the city with forethought in evolution. Need has found a voice within the community, or maybe paradoxically. It divides the entire concept into two: city-inevolution driven by the needs of people and the intention of designers as urban drivers (Cunha, Landscape as Active Ingredient-Patrick Geddes in Chandigarh, 2002). This intention-need divide is illustrated in its least severe form in the gap between the visionary and the problem solver, the impositional and participatory design. In each case, the second is informed more by the need of people than by utopian principles or individual aspirations. The parkland is an essential part of the heritage of the city. It is intended to provide a natural environment by building associations with people living in Chandigarh and enhancing the quality of life. The parkland should provide coherent and open accessible space that can be shared by city people as part of their daily lives. Chandigarh came into being as a result of partitioning Indo Pakistan. It was designed primarily for five lakhs population spread over 114sqkm of site area. Informal housing and urban expansion pressures arising from population growth of 11 lakhs (2018) over time resulted in growth in the number of private vehicles that has increased the traffic flow on the V4 and V3 road links of Leisure Valley, interrupting its continuity at the surface level. Leisure valley, 8 km parkland that was supposed to be developed as one park was fragmented into smaller pockets as individual identity parks. The introvert planning has led the Leisure Valley to disintegrate further. The individual pockets are designed at different times by different authorities (Technocrats, currently on the decision-making chair, i.e., UT administration's Chief Architect and Chief Town Planner and Municipal Corporation). It has introverted planning that leads to disconnecting rather than an integrated approach. This academic thesis will look into the interfaces between parkland of Leisure valley which are the physical and visual disconnects to re- configure2 the landscape of leisure valley as a sustainable landscape in terms of social, ecological, cultural and economic benefits and propose landscape strategies for the city level open space as a new vision which sustains next fifty years in terms of nature and cultural association. The outcome will focus on looking beyond grid life, enhancing the experience with new found edge-free green open space.