Part of:

People:

Aditya Prakash (archive creator)

Title:

Linear city, Chandigarh, India (circa 1975-1987)

Date:

circa 1975-2003

Level of archival description:
Project

Extent and medium:

134 drawings (including reprographic copies)
40 photographic materials
0.01 l.m. of textual records

Scope and content:
This project series documents Aditya Prakash's proposal for an alternative plan for Chandigarh, India, which came to be known as the Linear City. Prakash began developing and advocating for this idea around the early 1970s.

The Linear City had two fundamental ideas at its core. The first was to raise the roadways in Chandigarh (or any future city) 10-12 feet from ground level. This, he proposed, would separate vehicular traffic from pedestrians, eliminating all the hazardous impacts of traffic on daily life. The large part of the drawings for this project show sector plans and city blocks with evenly dispersed roundabout roadways as major transit hubs, wrapping around but high above centres of pedestrian activity that included shops, markets and green spaces. The sale of the land below the roadways would pay for the upheaval. He also recommended building this city only a few sectors deep, but endlessly expanding it length-wise, with a raised canal along one side to provide an additional transpiration network and irrigation. The second fundamental idea of this city was the creation of self-sustaining sectors in the city plan, advocating that each neighbourhood should have the infrastructure to provide food and recycling for its residents. He fervently argued for the reimagination of modernist Chandigarh by incorporating sustainable, local traditions - the rural should exist in harmony with the urban. In opposition to Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, he believed areas for recycling, animal husbandry, and growing food should be incorporated into the fabric of the city.[1]

This project is recorded largely through original drawings of city plans, perspectives and axonometric views detailing Prakash's new vision for the city. It seems that many of the perspectives were drawn by family friend Sandeep Virmani, after listening to Prakash's ideas.[2] The project is also recorded through photographs, negatives and slides showing plans and the project model. A small amount of notes and an article on the project are also included.

[1]Vikramaditya Prakash, One Continuous Line: Art, Architecture and Urbanism of Aditya Prakash (Ahmedabad, India: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 2019), 164-181.
[2]Prakash, One Continuous Line, 169.

Reference number:

AP206.S1.1975.PR01

Arrangement:
Materials in this project series were arranged by material type.

Location:

Chandigarh India