Project Description

Chandigarh Revealed

Le Corbusier’s City Today

Photography and text by Shaun Fynn.

Book design by Giles Dunn, Punkt Ltd. Foreword by Maristella Casciato.
Essay by Vikramàditya Prakàsh.

In 1950, Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru invited legendary French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier to embark on one of the greatest experiments in urban planning history: to build on the plains of Punjab a new capital—Chandigarh, a city whose monumental modernism promised to free India from the fetters of colonial tradition and lay the groundwork for an independent and utopian future. Nicknamed the City Beautiful, Chandigarh has been called “one of the perfect cities of the world in terms of architecture, cultural growth, and modernisation,” and in 2016 its Capitol Complex was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Six decades after its founding, photographer and designer Shaun Fynn was granted unprecedented access to turn his lens on Le Corbusier’s city and capture what is rarely seen: the living metropolis behind the master plan. Fynn’s captivating images of the city and its inhabitants observe how the poetry of the architect’s compositions have been shaped by the tumult of everyday life and worn by the forces of time.

Chandigarh Revealed combines striking photographs, texts by Le Corbusier authorities Maristella Casciato and Vikramaditya Prakash, an interview with one of the last remaining architects from Le Corbusier’s team, M. N. Sharma, and custom-designed maps to create an astonishing and intimate portrait of a legendary city.

Chandigarh Revealed was nominated as one of the top ten architecture books of 2017 by Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) Berlin.

Further Information:

– Copyright Shaun Fynn
– Hardcover : 240 pages, $60.00 / €50 / INR 3500 / £45.00
– Publisher : Princeton Architectural Press & Mapin Publishing (April 4, 2017)
– Foreword by Maristella Casciato, Essay by Vikramaditya Prakash, interview with MN Sharma
– Book Design : Giles Dunn, Punkt, London
– Project Editors: Jenny Florence, Princeton Architectural Press & Neha Manke, Mapin
– Language : English ; ISBN-13 : 978-1616895815
– Product Dimensions : 9 x 12 inches / 228 x 305 mm
– Library of Congress Cataloging :
– 1. Architecture—India—Chandigarh—History—20th century.
– 2. Le Corbusier, 1887-1965. 3. Chandigarh (India)—Buildings, structures, etc.
– LCC NA1508.C44 F96 2017 | DDC 720.954/5520904—dc23