Twilight of the Plan: Chandigarh and Brasilia
Academy of Architecture
The book presents a contemporary picture of the urban development models devised by the Modern Movement and a reflection on what they mean today. Chandigarh and Brasilia, newly founded cities built ex nihilo in 1950-1960, looked explicitly to the “functionalist” and “rationalist” traditions of modern town planning. Also, like some of the plans inspired by the neoclassical that were prepared in the early decades of the 20th century, especially for the building of government capitals or civic centres, they both sought to fulfil monumental ambitions to represent state institutions. The book examines the contemporary reality of Chandigarh and Brasilia through a grid of catchwords that sum up the distinctively modern terms in which the two projects are stated. Divided into two main categories, Urbanism and Architecture, the catchwords accompany the reader along a photographic sequence that helps to define an “official” idiom whereby architecture was expected to represent the “modernisation” of both countries.
Texts in English by Josep Acebillo, Maristella Casciato, Stanislaus von Moos.
Photographs by: Enrico Cano.