The Design of Chandigarh

• Chandigarh was supposed to be an administrative city with initially half million extendable to one million.

• The city was built on a grid pattern.
  
  
• Axis was north-east and south-west direction, avoiding any sunshine from striking directly on the buildings parallel to the road.
  
  
• The rectangular squares or sectors intended for residential purposes were planned as self-contained units with community services such as schools, a health centre, a club and a shopping centre.
  
  
• An interconnected system of green-spaces ran through the sectors superimposing a landscape pattern over the gridiron system.
  
  
• Chandigarh has the Capitol Complex (the Secretariat, the Assembly and the High Court) and 240 acres of the city itself.² The complex is considered to be unquestionably the most original and powerful monumental composition in contemporary design.
  
  
• The construction lasted several years but by the end of 1952 most government departments had moved from the city of Simla to Chandigarh.

• While housing was one and two storey high; the large capital buildings were multi-storey with a horizontal direction.

• Low-rise housed was proposed, unlike the Utopian Radiant City where high-rise buildings were provided because of hot climate. Greenery was provided and artificial hills were made. Trees were planed along the road.

2Latin Capitolium, temple of Jupiter at Rome—a group of buildings in which the functions of state government are carried out.