Synopses & Reviews
This richly illustrated volume invites us to think afresh about urban life and the modern city by offering images and analyses of two very different but complementary contemporary cities: the planned Indian city of Chandigarh and the ancient metropolis of Casablancaand#151;the ancient North African harbor town developed into a modern metropolis by Michel Ecochard and a team of young French and Moroccan architects after World War II. Countering the dominant view of modern urbanism that values avant-garde ideas originating in the West over developments in non-Western regions, the book offers a more nuanced approach to the history of the modern city, and to the relationship between local knowledge and imported ideas in the rapid globalization that followed World War II.
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Ultimately, by focusing on the design and inhabitation of the citiesand#8217; public spaces and housing, the book locates the essence of the modern city in its ordinary fabric and everyday lifeand#151;which shifts our understanding of architecture and planning, enabling us to see it as a collective work that is necessarily the result of negotiation among a variety of actors. Chandigarh Casablanca is published to coincide with an exhibition at the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal.
Synopsis
Chandigarh Casablanca documents two different but complementary urban realities that have played a fundamental role in the imagination, the definition, and the redefinition of the 20th-century modern city: On one hand Chandigarhand#151;planned by a team consisting of Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Maxwell Fry, Jane B. Drew, and Indian architects and plannersand#151;and on the other Casablancaand#151;conceived by Michel Ecochard and a team of young French and Moroccan architects. The contemporary gaze shifts here from the symbolic use of architecture in the construction of monumental masterpieces to the formation of public space, housing, and social facilities. Considering the objective to present a contemporary perspective on these cities that counteracts their reading as and#147;exported urbanismand#8221;, the book includes commissioned work by Yto Barrada (born in Paris and educated in Tangier, Morocco) and Takashi Homma (Japanese), two non-western photographers especially engaged in investigating everyday life conditions in urban scenarios.and#160;The study of modern urbanism has traditionally ascribed universal value to avant-garde ideas originating in Europe and North America, and seen developments in non-Western regions as derivations from those original models.
Chandigarh Casablanca aims to decenter this dominant view and to contribute to a new geography of the modern city that is attentive to its entangled multiplicities and to the productive interactions that took place across cultures and borders.and#160;In a broader perspective, Chandigarh Casablanca fosters fresh discussions on the engagement of local particularity with the universal in the framework of the growing economic and political cooperation promoted by the United Nations and other global organizations in the decades following World War II.and#160;
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Synopsis
A study on two different but complementary urban realities that have played a fundamental role in the imagination, the definition, and the redefinition of the 20th-century modern city.
About the Author
Tom Avermaete is professor of architecture at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands.Maristella Casciato is associate director of research at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal.
Table of Contents
Mirko Zardini
Cities After Planning
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Yto Barrada
Casablanca, August 2013
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Takashi Homma
Chandigarh, March 2013
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Introduction
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Geopolitical Context
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Actors
Jawaharlal Nehru
Ernest Weissmann
Douglas Ensminger
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The End of the European Colonial Empires
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Between East and West, a New Path for Development
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A New Focus for the United Nations: The Technical Assistance Administration
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The Political Battleground of Development Aid Missions
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The Global Involvement of Non-Governmental Organizations: The Ford Foundationand#8217;s Footprint
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Two Urban Experiments
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Actors
Le Corbusier
Michel and#201;cochard
Albert Mayer
Vladimir Bodiansky
Pierre Jeanneret
Architectsand#8217; Office
Mohinder Singh Randhawa
Maciej (Matthew) Nowicki
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Exploring the Site: Chandigarh Before Chandigarh
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Exploring Casablanca
The GAMMA Grid for Casablanca
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The CIAM Grid for Chandigarh
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Planning Chandigarh
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Planning the Expansion of Casablanca
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Governance in Casablanca
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Governance in Chandigarh
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Designing Chandigarhand#8217;s Civic Fabric
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Residential Sectors
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Schools
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; University Campus
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Medical Institute
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Hydroelectric Plant
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Workersand#8217; Township
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Capitol Complex
Designing the Civic Fabric of the New Casablanca
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Infrastructure
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Citand#233; Horizontale
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Neighbourhood Centres
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Citand#233; Verticale
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Markets
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Schools
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Transnational Planning
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Actors
Mary Jaqueline Tyrwhitt
Charles Abrams
Edwin Maxwell Fry
Jane B. Drew
Otto H. Koenigsberger
Jacob Leslie Crane
Constantinos A. Doxiadis
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The Seminal Role of Conferences in Transnational Planning
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Shared Tools: Missions and Reports
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How Modernism Embraced New Climatic Conditions: Tropical Architecture
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The Rise of a New Figure: The International Development Expert
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In Conclusion
Further Reading
Index
Copyrights and Image Credits
Acknowledgements
Biographies
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