ANU(ChandigarhCityNews)
To commemorate the occasion the Architecture museums of Chandigarh organized the following programs
Guided tours of Le Corbusier Centre and Jeanneret House for students and citizens were conducted by Deepika Gandhi, Director Le Corbusier Centre. The visitors were first made aware of the significance of the house that Jeanneret lived in, the process of its restoration, the salient features of these houses designed by Jeanneret. Gandhi explained the exhibits of the Jeanneret Museum in the sections on Housing, Educational buildings ,Punjab University and especially his world famous furniture design. Of particular interest were the personal pictures of Jeanneret and his correspondence with Corbusier and the Indian Administration. The students of architecture were made aware of the importance of the study of these low cost structures which did not compromise on aesthetics as they showed us the way ahead in these times of shrinking resources and expanding cities. The visitors were also able to view the Exhibition by Cristian Chironi- My House Is a Le Corbusier on the works of Jeanneret and Corbusier. Following a series of residences and encounters in structures by Le Corbusier in Italy, France and Argentina, Chironi with My House is a Le Corbusier, has taken temporary residence in India, in the Pierre Jeanneret House Museum in Chandigarh, from November 9th through December 9th, 2017.
My house is a Le Corbusier (Pierre Jeanneret House Museum) is a project promoted by the Le Corbusier Foundation of Paris, the Pierre Jeannette Museum and the Le Corbusier Center, Chandigarh with the support of the collection Anna and Francesco Tampieri and the Institute of Italian Culture of New Delhi, in collaboration with MAN – Museo d’Arte della Provincia di Nuoro, l’Istituzione Bologna Musei | MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Xing, NERO. Here Cristian has interestingly juxtaposed the drawings of Corbusier with the furniture of Jeanneret treating them as a new style of architecture. He has also got a manhole cover fabricated with the windows of the Jeanneret house as his reference.
At the guided tour to the Le Corbusier Centre again the first sensitization was about the creative genius of Jeanneret as expressed in this extremely innovative structure that showcases low cost architecture which is climate friendly as well. The salient features of the building like the prefabricated structural members, provision for glare free north light in all areas, and interesting details of doors and windows held the visitors in awe. Gandhi further explained the displays at the Centre from the excavations of Harappan civilization found under Sector 17 in the 1960s to drawings and pictures of Chandigarh being made.
Launch of bilingual captions in Hindi and English at Le Corbusier Centre
To make the museum more approachable to the citizens of Chandigarh and the regional tourists all the captions in the centre have been translated in Hindi to help them in understanding the making and heritage of Chandigarh. This will perhaps be the first museum in Chandigarh to have bilingual captions to make it more approachable to the common man. The captions were translated by with the help of Department of Schools which deputed Dr Dinesh Yadav and Dr Piyush Aggarwal both teachers at GMSSS to undertake this challenging task. Deepika Gandhi and the translaters had to brainstorm over the translation of many technical terms and even structures like the Tower of shadows! Gandhi hopes that with the addition of Hindi captions more people will be able to benefit from the Centre and lose their apprehension about entering the museum which is usually considered the domain of scholars and researchers
