EGA-Utopia Sincretica y Simbolos Cosmologicos en Le Corbusier

8/22/2019 EGA-Utopia Sincretica y Simbolos Cosmologicos en Le Corbusier

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quitectura de esta esplendorosa urbefantasmal se entrelazan los arcos ti-mridos con los voladizos sucesivos detradicin asitica.

El sueo de tolerancia de Gandhiy Nehru se rompi brutalmente el dade la independencia, cuando BengalaOriental y el Punjab Occidental, dosreas de predominio musulmn, se se-

pararon de la Unin India para crearel Pas de los Puros. Entre la sangre delas matanzas, el caos de las migracio-nes y el desgarro de la utopa rota, sur-ga un problema administrativo: La-hore, la capital histrica del Punjab,una de las ciudades imperiales de losmogoles, quedaba del lado pakistan;era necesario crear una capital para lamitad de la regin que quedaba del la-do indio de la frontera.

Al principio, nadie pareca darle unaimportancia excepcional a la nueva ciu-dad, que qued en manos de ilustresdesconocidos como Albert Meyer, Mat-thew Novicki y P. L. Varma. Pero No-vicki muri a los pocos meses en un ac-cidente de aviacin, y la burocracia delnuevo estado llam a Jane Drew yMaxwell Fry para sustituirlo. En un ac-to de modestia excepcional entre losarquitectos, comprendieron que se tra-taba de un encargo nico, de una opor-tunidad irrepetible, de un programadigno del maestro. Pero Le Corbusier,ocupado en denunciar el plagio de suproyecto para Naciones Unidas porWallace Harrison, tampoco compren-di en el primer momento la impor-tancia de aquel encargo en una remo-ta capital de provincia de un pasextico. Pretenda resolver el proble-ma desde la Rue de Svres, no estabadispuesto a desplazarse a la India confrecuencia, no fue fcil llegar a un

Menos heroico y ms pragmtico,ms estadista que mrtir, Nehru bus-c los emblemas del nuevo estado enalgunos episodios con los que podranidentificarse todos los ciudadanos dela Unin India, ya fueran hindes, jai-nistas, musulmanes o cristianos. En lascartas que diriga a su hija Indira des-de las crceles britnicas, Nehru decaencontrar inspiracin en Asoka, pri-mer unificador del subcontinente, quedespus de consolidar su imperio ensangrientas batallas se convirti ho-rrorizado al pacifismo, al feminismo yla tolerancia religiosa. Indira sac a es-condidas de las mazmorras imperialesun manuscrito, The discovery of In-dia, donde el futuro primer ministroenvidiaba la carrera poltica de Akbar,un prncipe musulmn, descendientede Tamerln y de Gengis Khan, queuni bajo su imperio la mayor partedel Indostn, despos hijas de los ma-rajs, se interes por el Ramayana, pu-so lmites al poder de los ulemas, y serode de sabios de todas las ramas delIslam, pero tambin de hindes, jai-nistas y jesuitas. En agradecimientopor el nacimiento de su hijo, Akbar le-vant Fatehpur Sikri, una ciudad en eldesierto, pronto abandonada por laaridez del clima y perfectamente con-servada por la misma razn; en la ar-

La Columna del Dominio se alza enlos jardines de la residencia del virreybritnico en Nueva Dehli, cerrando laperspectiva interminable de la KingsWay. En su pedestal campea una ins-cripcin compuesta por Edwin Lutyensy Lord Irwin, sntesis del ideario delfuncionariado colonial:

In thought faithIn word wisdomIn deed courageIn life service

So may India be great

Como es bien sabido, Ghandi pen-saba que el Indostn poda ser grandepor s misma; veinte aos despus LordMountbatten, el ltimo virrey, dej lacasa, que hoy se llama RashtrapatiBhavan y es la residencia del presidentede la Repblica India. Pero la tarea queesperaba a los seguidores del Mahat-ma era herclea. Mil millones de ciu-dadanos, veintids lenguas, ocho reli-giones, cientos de sectas. Crear unestado a la europea, modelar una con-ciencia nacional a partir de ese mag-ma, era una labor imposible. Aos an-tes de la independencia, Gandhilevant en Benars un templo a la Ma-dre India, desnudo de smbolos: el vi-sitante no encuentra ms que un fielmapa en relieve del territorio ndicosobre el suelo del santuario.

18 LA TORRE DE LAS SOMBRAS. UTOPA SINCRTICA YSMBOLOS COSMOLGICOS EN LA OBRA NDICA DELE CORBUSIERJos Calvo Lpez


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acuerdo acerca de los honorarios. Fi-nalmente, acept el puesto de conseje-ro arquitectnico, y se encarg del tra-zado urbanstico general y de la cabezapoltica de la ciudad antropomrfica.

Es frecuente establecer paralelos en-tre el Capitolio de Chandigarh y el co-razn de la Dehli imperial, enfatizan-do su carcter de emblemas del poder.

Comparando las plantas de uno y otro,podemos apreciar que las piezas sonlas mismas, pero ocupan casillas di-ferentes. En la capital del dominio bri-tnico, los bloques del Secretariadoflanquean la avenida real y conducenla vista a la casa del virrey, mientrasque el parlamento, con su Asamblea,su Consejo de Estado y su Consejo delos Prncipes, queda en un discreto se-gundo plano; toda una metfora de laideologa colonial. Por el contrario, enChandigarh es la Asamblea la que ofre-ce su fachada a la va principal, dan-do frente al Palacio de Justicia, una ins-titucin que resulta invisible en la Delhide Lutyens; por el contrario, en la ca-pital del Punjab es el edificio adminis-trativo el que pasa a un segundo tr-mino. An ms significativo es eldestino reservado a la cabeza del es-quema. En las primeras versiones delplan de Chandigarh, su lugar iba aocuparlo la casa del Gobernador, tra-sunto de la residencia virreinal. Peroms adelante, Nehru se implic direc-tamente en el proyecto, y entendi queotorgarle este lugar preeminente eracontrario al principio democrtico. Elespacio culminante del eje urbano, elvrtice de la composicin de toda laciudad, no se destina en la capital pun-jab a una funcin poltica concreta,sino a los smbolos de la utopa sin-crtica que Nehru acariciaba desde su

Columna del Dominio.

Edificio de Fatehpur Sikri.

celda. Por tanto, es cierto que nos en-contramos en Nueva Dehli y Chandi-garh con dos imgenes del poder, pe-ro estamos hablando de conceptos muydistantes entre s; tan lejanos como elDominio colonial y la utopa de unademocracia multicultural.

En la capital punjab, tanto la Asam-blea como el Palacio de Justicia ofre-cen al eje de la ciudad dos gigantescas

cubiertas de hormign, dos umbrcu-los muy apropiados bajo el sol ndi-co. Ahora bien, la funcin de estos som-brajos es ms simblica que utilitaria,como seal William Curtis. Sus teste-ros recuerdan a las astas de los bvi-dos, un smbolo transcultural, un mo-tivo que Le Corbusier ya venaexplorando desde antiguo, quiz porinfluencia del minotauro de Picasso y


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Dehli Imperial.

Dosel del Fuerte Rojo de Dehli.

Capitolio de Chandigarh.

de su fascinacin comn por el Midifrancs. Pero en la nonata Casa del Go-bernador, en la Asamblea o en el Pala-cio de Justicia, las astas del bvido sefunden con el parasol, un smbolo deautoridad de origen bengal, equiva-lente al palio de las iglesias occidenta-les. Todos recordamos el mausoleo queShah Jahan, nieto de Akbar, construyen Agra para su esposa, Mumtaz Ma-hal. Menos conocido es el trono que elmismo sultn mand levantar en el Di-vn Pblico del Fuerte Rojo de Shah-jahanabad, su nueva ciudad junto aDehli, cubierto por un dosel que re-cuerda sorprendentemente a una b-veda vada. Cuando Nehru dictaminaque la posicin dominante de la resi-dencia es antidemocrtica, Le Corbu-sier reacciona con reflejos: las gigan-


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mnicas, puesto que se pueden en-contrar precedentes ms verosmilesen la cultura francesa; al fin y al cabo,Le Corbusier proceda de la Suisse ro-mande y vivi la mayor parte de su vi-da en Pars. Ms pertinente resulta lacomparacin con algunas lminas delPrcis de leons darchitecture de JeanNicolas Louis Durand, como la que re-

duce el ejercicio de la arquitectura acuatro operaciones de rigor militar:disposicin de las partes principales,disposicin de las partes secundarias,trazado de los muros, colocacin delas columnas. La planta de la Asam-blea recuerda las composiciones di-dcticas de Durand no slo por rasgosneoclsicos como la presencia de lasrotondas o la ubicuidad de las colum-nas, sino tambin por la potencia or-denadora de la cuadrcula o la dispo-sicin en paralelo de las crujas. Peroel plano corbusiano funde el modelocomo una onza de chocolate, rom-piendo, doblando, agrandando o achi-cando la malla de columnas donde esnecesario, disponiendo la sala circularen posicin descentrada o girando susejes para alinearlos con los puntos car-dinales, como las ruedas del carro deChakravartin, smbolo budista del soly del dominio sobre las cuatro partesdel universo, que Nehru estamp en labandera de la Repblica India.

Durand era profesor de la colePolytechnique, una institucin creadapor la Revolucin Francesa, que aco-ga indistintamente a los aspirantes aingeniero civil y militar para darles unaformacin bsica de carcter cientfi-co. Entre los primeros impulsores dela nueva escuela estaba Gaspard Mon-ge, fervoroso revolucionario, ardienteadmirador de Napolen, que afront

mil tareas durante la Revolucin y elImperio: fue ministro de Marina, mi-di el cuadrante meridiano, participen la expedicin cientfica que acom-pa a la campaa napolenica enEgipto. Mientras tanto, sus alumnosdieron a la imprenta los apuntes de suscursos en la cole Normale; as vio laluz la primera Gomtrie Descriptive,que en aquel momento fundacionalabarcaba nicamente lo que hoy co-nocemos como sistema didrico. Msadelante, los mismos discpulos, mu-chas veces desde la ctedra de la co-le Polytechnique, contribuyeron a en-sanchar los confines de la disciplinacon la perspectiva, la axonometra ola teora de las sombras.

Es bien sabido que Le Corbusier ve-a en la formacin politcnica un re-

Croquis Casa del Gobernador. Croquis de Nehru.

tescas prgolas, los palios bengales,han de recibir a los verdaderos de-positarios del poder, los represen-tantes electos del pueblo, a su entra-da a la Asamblea.

An ms desconcertante resultacomprobar que el cielorraso del tronodel Fuerte Rojo se decor conpietradura por artfices florentinos y que elpanel central representa el mito de Or-feo. Como el imperio de Shah Jahan,la nueva India de Nehru pretenda serprofundamente ndica, y al mismotiempo, igualmente culta, tolerante,cosmopolita e ilustrada. Otra compa-racin frecuente pone en relacin laplanta de la Asamblea punjab con elAltes Museum de Schinkel, en la Islade los Museos berlinesa. No parece ne-cesario ir a buscar estas analogas ger-


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vulsivo contra la paralizada cole deBeaux-Arts. Esto explica su inters porla geometra descriptiva, la presenciade los paraboloides en el Pabelln delos Juegos Electrnicos, el muro ala-beado en la capilla de Ronchamp o elhiperboloide hiperblico, cortado porun plano oblicuo, de la cubierta de laAsamblea. Ms difciles de entenderson los dos apndices metlicos que re-matan el hiperboloide. Como los tes-

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Planta Asamblea.

teros de los parasoles, recuerdan a lascornamentas de los bvidos, pero laspuertas de la propia Asamblea ofrecenotra interpretacin: se inscribe en ellasla trayectoria del sol en invierno y enverano, una imagen muy querida porLe Corbusier desde los aos en que ar-gumentaba que la jornada solar deveinticuatro horas da ritmo a la jor-nada de los hombres, que tambin sepropona trazar en el suelo de la ex-

planada central del Capitolio. No esarriesgado suponer que las curvas quecoronan el hiperboloide sesgado pro-ceden al mismo tiempo de las astas delas reses y de una carta heliogrfica.

Nos encontramos por tanto anteuna larga serie de smbolos solares delorden del universo que enlazan la cien-cia occidental con la tradicin ndi-ca. En la tribuna presidencial de laAsamblea se habra de colocar una co-


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lumna de Asoka, el mtico rey del In-dostn que intent una primera fusinentre budismo e hinduismo, de tal mo-do que los rayos de sol la iluminaranel da de la apertura anual del parla-mento. La rueda de la bandera de laUnin India, uno de los smbolos sin-crticos de Nehru, presente tambinen el Capitolio, no es otra cosa quela rueda del carro solar, un arquetipo

indoeuropeo que en el otro extremodel continente asociamos a Apolo yFaetn. Toda una serie de rgulos deorigen mogol haban construido ob-servatorios en Jaipur o Dehli; extraasconstrucciones en las que la forma res-ponde a una geometra abstracta, a unalgica planetaria, como los cilindroscortados por planos inclinados, lasrampas que hacen de gnomon o unafascinante esfera hueca cortada en br-baros y limpios tajos por las horas.

A estos smbolos universales delmundo y del poder se une, como es sa-bido, otro emblema del Congreso Na-cional Indio, o ms bien del sueo deGandhi y Nehru: la Mano Abierta,imagen de la tolerancia entre comuni-dades distintas, pero tambin de laprosperidad material que el nuevo es-tado haba de llevar a una poblacincon hambre de siglos, un monumento

realizado mucho despus de la muer-te de Nehru y Le Corbusier. Tambinse construye mucho despus de la de-saparicin del maestro otro smboloque no ha ocupado las cubiertas de lashistorias de la arquitectura moderna,como la Mano Abierta, pero ofreceuna potente sntesis de algunas direc-trices de la obra corbusiana: la Torrede las Sombras.

Tres lados de una sala de planta cua-drada se protegen del sol con panta-llas de brise-soleils, dejando pasar elviento; hace las veces de cubierta otrasala cuadrada, inscrita en la planta dela primera y orientada segn sus dia-gonales. La trayectoria del carro solardibuja las sombras infinitamente va-riables de los parasoles y la cubierta,y cada da del ao ofrece un espect-culo diferente, como si lospans-de-ve-rre ondulatoires del Secretariado y LaTourette convirtieran su msica con-gelada en danza matemtica.

Curiosamente, los dibujos de la To-rre de las Sombras vienen acompaa-dos en la Obra Completa del maes-tro por una carta solar y algunosproblemas de sombras, en perspectivay didrico, que encajaran a la perfec-cin en cualquier tratado de Geome-tra Descriptiva. En particular, el es-Sala de Durand.

Asamblea vista general. Asamblea detalle.

Hiperboloide GD.


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Smbolos solares suelo capitolio.

Mano abierta real.

quema en doble proyeccin pone enprctica un riguroso procedimiento,basado en el giro de los rayos de luzalrededor de una recta vertical, pararepresentar de forma exacta la alturadel sol en alzado; este ngulo no se re-presenta en verdadera magnitud, alcontrario de lo que ocurre con el azi-mut en planta. Todo esto recuerda a

las invectivas que diriga contra los ar-quitectos Chastillon, antecesor deMonge en la escuela de ingenieros deMzires, acusndolos de falsear la po-sicin del sol empleando rayos de solcuyas proyecciones forman ngulos decuarenta y cinco grados con lo que des-pus se conocer como lnea de tierra,un ngulo imposible en las fachadasorientadas al norte. Tanto escrpulocontrasta con un detalle que slo per-cibir un lector atento: la latitud y lon-gitud indicadas en el dibujo no co-rresponden a la India, sino a Francia.Ms que un rasgo de improvisacin,podemos ver aqu una sutil alusin alcarcter universal de estos smbolos as-tronmicos; al fin y al cabo, el sol sa-le para todos.

Bvidos ubicuos, palios indoeuro-peos, geometra abstracta, trayectoriassolares; se dira que Nehru y Le Cor-busier estaban buscando divisas uni-versales, independientes de todas lasrazas, todas las lenguas y todas las re-ligiones, pero aceptables para una co-munidad planetaria. Al fin y al cabo,el maestro consideraba a esta sociedadmundial como su verdadero cliente, almenos desde los das del concurso dela Sociedad de las Naciones. Parece cla-ro que las construcciones de Chandi-garh, y en especial la Asamblea, la Ma-no Abierta y la Torre de las Sombras,recogen con una fuerza singular, como


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ninguna otra construccin del siglo XX,

un tema central de la arquitectura mo-derna: la necesidad de encontrar nue-vos emblemas apropiados a los idea-les de la era moderna. Nuevos porquehan de representar nuevas realidades,como los palacios de la era de la m-quina que Le Corbusier dibujaba enlos aos veinte, y nuevos porque hande ser independientes de esta o aque-lla cultura y representar a una comu-nidad de dimensin planetaria, comola Sociedad de Naciones, las NacionesUnidas, o la abrumadora complejidad

de la Unin India.Pero precisamente por su propia no-vedad, estos smbolos no se interpre-tan fcilmente, puesto que toda lenguadepende de la convencin; esto es loque explica el aspecto desconcertanteque la Asamblea ofrece a primera vis-ta. En los aos setenta, Charles Jenckssostena la ineficacia de la arquitec-

tura moderna como medio de comu-

nicacin, ironizando sobre la capillade Ronchamp, comparada con pare-jas de monjas por algunos encuestadosignorantes. Sin embargo, la va alter-nativa, la recuperacin de los viejosmorfemas, es an ms ineficaz: la ar-quitectura llamada posmoderna ha de-jado poco ms que algunas caricatu-ras. Al contrario, parece que uno delos pocos caminos posibles es precisa-mente el del Corbusier tardo: cons-truir nuevos smbolos transculturalessuperponiendo y fundiendo los viejos

emblemas de todas las arquitecturas,que por otra parte estn ms vincula-das entre s de lo que podramos pen-sar; en la India podemos ver enlazar-se la arquitectura de Grecia y Romacon Persia y Uzbekistn, encontrar unextremo de la franja islmica que lle-ga hasta Espaa, o reconocer el palla-dianismo britnico entreverado con la

arquitectura mogola en la obra de Lut-

yens.Chandigarh ha sobrevivido cin-cuenta aos al monzn, pero desde en-tonces se han roto muchas ilusiones.Nehru, tan distante del capitalismo oc-cidental como del marxismo sovitico,estuvo entre los fundadores del Movi-miento de los No Alineados; pero laexpresin acuada para designar estetercer bloque perdi su sentido polti-co y qued reducida a un sinnimo dela miseria. El Punjab indio se volvia dividir, y los edificios del Capitolio

albergan tres administraciones: el es-tado hind de Haryana, el Punjab sijy la propia ciudad de Chandigarh, ad-ministrada por el estado federal. Neh-ru convirti el Congreso Nacional In-dio impulsado por Gandhi en unpartido poltico, que al final qued se-pultado bajo escndalos de corrupcin.Las tropas enviadas por Indira Gand-

Jantar Mantar.


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26

Planta torre de las sombras.

hi asaltaron el Templo Dorado de Am-ritsar, la ciudad sagrada de los sijs, yla hija de Nehru pag la profanacincon la muerte. Hace unos aos, la Ma-no Abierta y la Torre de las Sombrasse alzaban solitarias entre metralletasy alambradas. Los actos de barbariede algunos musulmanes han ocupa-do las televisiones durante semanas en-teras; por el contrario, cuando una ma-sa de hinduistas enfervorizados derribcon las manos una mezquita del tiem-po de Babur, el abuelo de Akbar, ma-tando de paso a varios miles de ma-hometanos, la noticia qued relegadaa las pginas interiores de los peridi-cos. En la Francia republicana, se pro-hbe paradjicamente el velo islmicoen nombre de la tolerancia laica y laherencia revolucionaria, mientras sediscute acerca de la identidad nacio-nal y se quiere dar un trato de favora los hijos de los magrebes, dejndo- tan actual como el primer da.

les entrar por la puerta trasera de lacole Polytechnique y otras escuelasde lite. Los ideales del MovimientoModerno se han difuminado hastahacerse irreconocibles y la esttica delas vanguardias ha quedado irremisi-blemente disociada de la tica social,hasta tal punto que las alusiones a lavivienda mnima provocan hilaridad.Pero a pesar de esto, o quiz a cau-sa de todo esto, precisamente ahora,cuando la idea de una comunidad pla-netaria ha dejado de ser la construc-cin mental de unos cuantos diplo-mticos, y es una realidad visible cadada en las calles y en los supermerca-dos del primer mundo, el ejemplo deChandigarh, ese intento problemti-co, difcil y oscuro de construir unossmbolos de valor universal, resulta


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Torre de las sombras.


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sion will depend on the observers interpretation. Theobserver will also need a good eye to judge well con-trastsand, differently from other kind of discourse, itsappraisal will not be linear or precise; nor will its com-prehension be always the same.Making clear distinctions will allow the discourse toexist, but if they are too many, there will probably beonly confusion left. What is said is equally importantto what is kept from say ing; more information is notnecessarily better if the main theme dilutes in it. Car-lo Adelio Galimberti said, too much light does not il-luminate, because it annuls the shadows nuances18

as he referred to the excessive information that of-ten restraints or hinders comprehension beyond meredata. The drawings intent is not to represent reali-ty, but only a fragment of it, a fragment chosen to ex-plain or describe. Therefore it is important to decidewhat one wishes to say, instead of trying to say asmuch as is grasped.The singular position of the section in Berninis draw-ing, points out the difference in contrast with thesheets composition order; an ensemble apparentlybalanced, finished, beyond the process of construc-tion or improvement. The aesthetical balance withinthe sheet sways us to understand that there is a rea-son for the different position of the section. Bernini us-es beauty as a resource to call the observers atten-

tion and transmit the aura of his project. As Baldinuccidescribed Bernini, whether it was a great or a smallwork, he tried, as much as he could, to highlight thebeauty of conception achieved in that work19 . In thiscase, he rather endeavoured to transmit the idea ofthe project more than the project itself.When using non-objective resources, the messagemay be misunderstood or not understood at all. Butthis is common in all languages. Stefano Ray, in ref-erence to Rafaels architecture, highlighted the im-portance of the confusion caused by the apparentcontradiction between image and structure on the ob-server. According to him, it has the function to in-duce the observer to ulterior thinking; it is likely thatonly the impression of the scandaloremains, but it isalso possible to ultimately grasp the message the ar-

chitect intended to transmit20

.Berninis drawing eloquently proves that there are noprocedure drawings. It reveals that graphic designis not alien to drawing architectural plans, and thatclarity and beauty are qualities compatible to archi-tectural drawing. Drawings are documents that mustbe readand understood. Drawings must thereforebe made based on their purpose and on the recep-tor. In such interaction the howis said is as impor-tant as whatis said.

16/ As appended in: Massimo Locci, Gian Lorenzo Bernini.Scena retorica per limmaginario urbano, Turin, Testo&Im-magine, 1998, p. 13, n. 1017/ Baltasar Gracin, op. cit., crisi II.18/ Carlo Adelio Galimberti, La troppa luce non illumina.Grafica darte, N.49, XIII year, January-march, 2002, p.2.19/ Filippo Baldinucci, op. cit.20/ Ray, Stefano, Raffaello architetto. Linguaggio artistico eideologia del Rinascimento romano, Rome-Bari, Laterza,

1974, p. 67.

from the Indian Union to create the Land of the Pure.Among the blood of slaughters, the chaos of migra-tions and the crumble of utopia, an administrative prob-lem arose: Lahore, the historical capital city of Pun-jab, fell on the Pakistani side of the border; a newcapital was needed for the Indian part of the region.At the start, the design of the new city was left in thehands of Albert Meyer, Matthew Novicki and P. L. Var-ma. However, Novicki was killed some months later ina plane crash and the Punjabi bureaucracy asked JaneDrew and Maxwell Fry to take charge of the project.They understood at first glance that they were fac-

ing a unique job, an exceptional opportunity, a task forThe Master. However, at this moment Le Corbusierwas busy denouncing the plagiarism of his project forthe United Nations by Wallace Harrison, and did notgive much importance to this commission in a remoteprovincial capital of an exotic country. He tried to solvethe problem from the Rue de Svres, he was not freeto travel frequently to India, it was not easy to reachan agreement about his fees. At last, he accepted thepost of architectural counsellor, in charge of the gen-eral town-planning layout and the design of the build-ings at the head of his anthropomorphic city.Both Chandigarhs Capitol and Imperial Dehli havebeen described as architectural emblems of power.However, it is easy to see in the plans of both citiesthat the pieces are the same, but are placed on dif-ferent squares. In the capital of the British Dominion,the Secretariat b locks f lank the Kings Way, whichculminates on the Viceroys House, while the Parlia-ment, including the Assembly, the Council of Stateand the Council of the Princes, is placed in a sec-ondary position; a perfect metaphor of colonial ide-ology. By contrast, in Chandigarh the Assembly isplaced beside the main road, in front of the Palace ofJustice, while the administrative building stands be-hind the Assembly. Quite significantly, in the firststages of the project the Governors house was to beplaced at the end of the main road, in an obvious par-allel with Imperial Dehli; however, later on Nehru wasinvolved with the project and considered such ascheme as anti-democratic. The focal point of thenew city was to be occupied by the emblems of thesyncretic utopia that Nehru conceived in jail. Thus,it is true that both Imperial Dehli and republicanChandigarh materialize images of power, but we aretalking about quite d ifferent conceptions of power;as different as a colonial Dominion and a multicul-tural democracy.In Chandigarh, both the Assembly and the Palaceof Justice feature huge concrete roofs flanking thecity axis, quite useful under the Indian sun. Howev-er, William Curtis remarked that the function of theseverandas is rather symbolic than utilitarian. Their endsresemble the horns of bovids, a multicultural symbol,cherished by Le Corbusier for a long time, maybe

The Tower of Shadows. Syncretic Utopiaand Cosmological Symbols in Le Cor-busiers Chandigarh

by Jos Calvo Lpez

The Dominion Column closes the endless perspec-tive of the Kings Way from the gardens of theViceroys House in New Dehli. An epigram by EdwinLutyens and Lord Irwin is inscribed in its pedestal,reflecting the ideals of colonial civil servants:

In thought faith

In word wisdomIn deed courageIn life serviceSo may India be great

Of course, Gandhi thought that India could be greaton its own; twenty years later, the last Viceroy, LordMountbatten of Burma, left the House, which at pres-ent is named Rashtrapati Bhavan and is the residenceof the President of the Republic of India. However,Gandhis successors had to face a herculean task. Athousand million citizens, twenty-two languages, eightreligions, hundreds of sects. To create a state ac-cording to the Western model, to construct a nationalawareness starting from this mess was simply im-possible. Some years before the independence of In-dia, Gandhi built a temple to Mother India in Varanasi,bare of any symbol; only a giant map of Hindustan

covers the floor of the sanctuary.A pragmatic statesman rather than a heroic martyr,Nehru searched for the emblems of the new state ina number of syncretic episodes in Indian history, sothat all citizens of the Indian Union, either Hindu, Mus-lim, Jainist or Christian, could identify with them. Ina number of letters written to her daughter Indira fromBritish jails, Nehru quoted Ashoka as a source of in-spiration. This semi-legendary ruler of protohistoricHindustan unified the subcontinent after a number ofbloody battles; in the wake of his triumph, he con-verted to feminism, pacifism and religious tolerance.In the manuscript of The discovery of India, smug-gled from the gaol by Indira, Nehru refers to the po-litical career of Akbar, a Muslim prince of Timurid de-scent. This great-grandchild of Genghis Khan joinedunder his rule the greater part of Hindustan, married

daughters of maharajas, showed his interest for theRamayana, limited the power of ulemas and soughtthe advice of scholars of al l branches of Islam, Hin-dus, Jainists and even Jesuits. To celebrate the birthof his son, he laid the foundations of Fatehpur Sikri,a city in the desert; the architecture of this phantomcity combines Timurid arches and Far East can-tilevered beams.Ghandis dream of tolerance was brutally broken onIndependence Day: East Bengal and Western Pun-jab, two areas of Muslim majority, were segregated


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24 through the influence of Picasso and their commonfascination for the French Midi. On the other hand, atthe unborn Governors House, the Assembly and thePalace of Justice, these roofs seem to be modelledalso on the bangala, an emblem of authority akin tothe baldachin of the Catholic Church. The mausoleumbuilt at Agra by Shah Jahan, a grandchild of Akbar,for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, is universally known. Notso well known is the throne built by this sultan at thePublic Divan at the Red Fort in Shahjahanabad, hisnew city beside Dehli, covered by a ca nopy in theshape of a sail vault. When Nehru declared the Gov-

ernors House antidemocratic, Le Corbusier immedi-ately saw that these emblems of power should greetthe legitimate owners of power, the representativesof the people, when arriving at their Assembly.Quite remarkably, the roof of the throne at the RedFort was decorated in pietra dura by Florentine crafts-men; its central panel represents the myth of Orpheus.As the empire of Shah Jahan, Nehrus India strug-gled to be deeply Hindustanic, and at the same timetruly learned, tolerant, educated and cosmopolitan.Another frequent comparison confront the plan of theAssembly with Schinkels Altes Museum in Berlin.However, such Germanic analogies seem unneces-sary, since French precedents are easy to find; afterall, Le Corbusier was born at the Suisse Romandeand spent most of his life in Paris. In particular, someplates in the Prcis de leons darchitectureby Jean-

Nicolas-Louis Durand furnish a convincing prece-dent for the plan of the Assembly. A well-known onereduces architecture to four straightforward militaryoperations: layout of the main parts, layout of the sec-ondary parts, drawing of the walls, placement ofcolumns. The design of the Assembly resembles suchneoclassical traits of Durands didactical composi-tions as the presence of the rotunda or the ubiquityof columns, but also such abstract concepts of histreatise as the para llel disposit ion of bays and theregulating role of the grid. However, in Le Corbusiershands, the model melts like a chocolate tablet, break-ing, bending, enlarging or shrinking the column gridwhere necessary, placing the round hall at a decen-tred posi tion or twisting its axes to a lign them withthe card inal points, as the wheels of the cart ofChakravartin, a Buddhist symbol of the sun and the

rule over the four parts of the Universe, connectedwith Ashoka and placed by Nehru on the flag of theRepublic of India.Durand was a professor at the cole Polythechnique,an institution created by the French Revolution thatgave a basic scientific education to the students incivil and military engineering. Amongst the first pro-moters of the new school was Gaspard Monge, anardent revolutionary, admirer of Napoleon, which car-ried on a huge number of tasks during the Revolutionand the Empire: he was Minister of Marine, he meas-

tecture; however, it furnishes a clear synthesis of anumber of directing lines in his work. Three sides ofa square plan hall are protected by the sun with openbrise-soleilscreens; another square hall, inscribedon the first one and aligned with its diagonals, playsthe role of a roof. The paths of the sun determine theinfinitely varied shadows of the screens; each day inthe year plays a different performance, as if the pans-de-verre ondulatoires of the Secretariat and LaTourette had mutated their frozen music in a mathe-matical dance.It is worthwhile to remark that the drawings of the

Tower of Shadows are placed in Le Corbusiers Oeu-vre Completebeside a solar chart and a number ofshadows problems in orthogonal projection and per-spective, which would fit perfectly in any DescriptiveGeometry manual. In particular, a scheme in doubleorthogonal projection employs an exact graphicalprocedure to determine the projections of solar raysin elevation, starting from their plan projection andperforming a rotation around a vertical axis. All thisrecalls the invectives that Chastillon, a predeces-sor of Monge at Mzieres, directed against archi-tects, remarking that they employed sun rays whoseprojections form an angle of forty-five degrees witha horizontal line, an impossible angle in northernfaades. Such an exacting practice contrasts with asmall detail that may pass unnoticed: the longitudeand latitude used by Le Corbusier correspond to a lo-

cation in France, not in India. Rather than a hastypatchwork, we should see here a subtle allusion tothe universal character of the solar path .Ubiquitous bovids, Indo-European canopies, abstractgeometry, solar paths: it seems that Nehru and LeCorbusier were looking for universal emblems, inde-pendent from all races, all languages and all religions,fit for a planetary community. After all, the Masterthought that this global community was his real client,at least from the days of the Society of Nations com-petition. The buildings at Chandigarh, in particularthe Assembly, the Open Hand and the Tower of Shad-ows, embody as no other work in the 20th century acentral issue in modern architecture: the need to findnew emblems that are fit for the ideals of our age.New emblems since they must represent new reali-ties, as the machine-age palaces Le Corbusier de-signed in the twenties; new emblems since they mustbe independent from this or that culture and repre-sent a community of planetary dimension, such asthe Society of Nations, the United Nations or the over-whelming complexity of the Indian Union.However, these symbols are not easy to decipher,since any language depends on convention; this ex-plains the strange look of the Assembly at first sight.In the seventies, Charles Jencks mocked the imageof the Ronchamp chapel, compared to a pair of nunsin a survey among an uneducated sample. However,

ured the quadrant of the meridian, he conducted thescientific expedition that went along with Napoleonscampaign in Egypt. Meanwhile, Monges studentsbrought to the presses the notes taken from his cours-es at the cole Normale; thus, the first Gomtrie De-scriptivewas published, including only double or-thogonal projections. Later on, his disciples, quitefrequently from his chair at the cole Polytechnique,enlarged the realm of the discipline including per-spective, axonometry, or shadow theory.Le Corbusier thought that the concepts and the idealsof the cole Polythechnique could shatter the out-

dated tradition of the cole de Beaux-Arts. This ex-plains his interest in Descriptive Geometry, the useof paraboloids in the Electronic Games Pavillion, thewarped wall in Ronchamp, or the hyperbolic hyper-boloid, cut by an oblique plane, over the roof of theAssembly. By contrast, the metallic pieces over thehyperboloid are not easy to explain. Just like the endsof the umbrellas in the Assembly and the Palace ofJustice, they resemble the horns of oxen, but thedoors in the same building furnish another interpre-tation, since the path of the sun in winter, spring andsummer is painted over them. Of course, this imagewas cherished by Le Corbusier from the twenties,when he argued that the solar twenty-four hour cy-cle rules the days of men; he planned to inscribe thisdiagram on the pavement of the Capitol. Thus, wemay conclude that the metal appendixes over the

Assembly derive both from the horns of the bovidsand from a solar chart.In this way, a long series of solar symbols of the or-der of the Universe intermingle at Chandigarh, link-ing together Western science and Indian tradition.An Ashoka column was to be placed on the presi-dential platform in the Assembly, in such a positionthat solar r ays would light it the day of the annualaperture of Parliament. The wheel of the flag of theRepublic, one of Nehrus syncretic symbols, belongsto Chakravartins solar chart, an Indo-European ar-chetype that is linked with Apollo and Phaeton at theother end of the continent. A number of petty kingshad built observatories in Jaipur and Dehli: strangeconstructions based on an abstract geometry, a plan-etary logic, such as cylinders cut by oblique planes,ramps playing the role of gnomons or a weird hollowsphere violently shredded by the hours.These universal symbols of power are joined to thewell-known emblem of the Indian National Congress,or rather of the dream of Nehru and Gandhi: the OpenHand, a symbol of tolerance between different com-munities, but also an image of the material prosper-ity that the new state was to br ing to a populationstarved for centuries, erected after the death of Nehruand Le Corbusier. Another symbol built after Le Cor-busiers death, the Tower of Shadows, has not beenused on the covers of the histories of modern archi-


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2/ SIGFRIED GIEDION, Op. Cit., p. 33.3/ SIGFRIED GIEDION, Op. Cit., p. 450.

the a lternative solution, the reuse of th e old mor-phemes, is even less efficient: Post-Modern archi-tecture has left little more than a number of cartoons.By contrast, it seems that one of the few sensiblepaths is that of the last decades in Le Corbusiers ca-reer: to create new transcultural symbols, meltingthe old emblems of all architectures; in fact, they arecloser than we may think at first sight. In Indian ar-chitecture, we can see Greece and Rome overlap-ping with Persia and Uzbekistan, an end of the Islamicbelt that reaches Iberia at the other extremity, orBritish Palladianism mingled with Mughal architec-ture in Lutyens work.Chandigarh has survived fifty years of monsoon, butmany ideals have been tarnished since its creation.Nehru, far from Western capitalism or Soviet Marx-ism, was a founder of the Non-Aligned Countriesmovement, but the phrase coined to refer to this blockis now a synonym for poverty. Indian Punjab was di-vided again, and the Capitol buildings house threeadministrations: Hindu Haryana, Sikh Punjab and theUnion Territory of Chandigarh. Nehru transformedGandhis National Indian Congress into a political par-ty that fel l prey to corruption. Troops sent by Ind iraGandhi stormed the Golden Temple at Amritsar, theSikhs sacred city, and Nehrus daughter was mur-dered in revenge. Just a few years ago, the OpenHand and the Tower of Shadows were deserted, apair of ruins surrounded by barbed wire and machineguns. The terrorist attacks of a few Muslims took con-

trol of Western media for weeks; by contrast, whena mass of Hindus tore down with their hands amosque dating from the period of Akbars grandfa-ther Babur, the news were sent to the back pages ofnewspapers. In Republican France, the Islamic veilis prohibited paradoxically for religious tolerancessake, while national identity is under discussion andSarkozy intends to open a back door for the sons ofMaghrebi immigrants in the cole Polythechniqueand other Grand coles. The ideals of Modern Move-ment have waned; the aesthetics of the avant-gardehave been dissociated from social ethic, and any al-lusion to Minimal Housing brings about wild derision.But now, when the idea of a planetary community isno longer a theoretical construction of a few diplo-mats, but rather a reality quite visible in the streetsand the stores of the First World, Chandigarhs proj-

ect, the hard and obscure task of putting forward uni-versal symbols, remains as pertinent as the first day.

1/ SIGFRIED GIEDION, Espacio, tiempo y arquitectura, Ed-itorial Dossat s.a., Madrid 1980.

emotion and reason thats to say, the main themesassociated to art- are inevitable parts of human ac-tion; they use to be, precisely, its unique, proper andnecessary driving force.The twentieth century says Gideon- justly claims therecovery of that common spirit that architecture, paint-ing, mathematics and philosophy used to share inbaroque times: we need to discover harmonic rela-tions between our intimate condition and our devel-oping environment. And by no way can we hold a highperforming level when it be kept apart of emotionallife. In that case, the whole machine collapses.2The recovery of traditional integration of symbolic re-ality and the needs of our strictly material existenceis what explainsaccording to Gideon- that the cubismof Gris and Picasso and the purism of Le Corbusier hadmostly dealt with objects and situations which wererelated to everyday life. Those Le Corbusier called ob-jects a reaction poetique. The mission shared by ar-chitects and painters will be then to open new worldsof sensibility, that is to say, to unveil the emotionalmeanings of the social and material world where hu-man life takes place:The artist acts in the same way the inventor or sci-entific explorer does; the three of them are seekingnew relations between men and their world. For anartist, these are relations of emotional nature insteadof a practical or cognitive one. The artist doesnt meanto copy everything that surrounds him but he doesntmean either to be watched by us. He is a specialist

that shows us in his work as in some sort of mirror,something that by ourselves we would not understand:the condition of our own spirit.3

A CONTEMPORARY VISIONCubism could be understood as a new way of ex-pressing the space-time relation between objects anda movement which also responds to a new scientificand cultural context; it reveals the existence of a newparadigm and a new collective mood, though it mightnot be totally and necessarily a conscious one. Inthis way, the foundations of a new vision are set, whichwill substitute the old system which derived from theprinciples of the renaissance.Actually, though it could appear to us as a system thewhole world has accepted from the very age-old times,three dimensional renaissance perspective concep-

tion has been ruling for no more than five centuriesand been limited as well to the western cultural do-main. It relates to Euclidean geometry whose mainvirtue -and its main limitation- is the easy way it canbe dealt with by human intuition and imagination.Physics and mathematics, however, are studying -since the nineteenth century- the existence of more-than-three dimensional realities which are long waybeyond the possibilities of imagination.Nowadays we positively know that the reliable de-scription of an object from one main point of view is

SPACE, TIME AND PERSPECTIVE IN THECONSTRUCTION OF THE CONTEMPORARYARCHITECTURAL GAZE: FROM HOCKNEYTO MIRALLES

by Montserrat Bigas Vidal,Luis Bravo Farr, Gustavo Contepomi

INTRODUCTIONIn Space, Time and Architecture, Sigfried Giedionemphasizes the validity of the Renaissance concep-tion of the world during the whole development of the

western artistic tradition previous to the beginningsof the twentieth century revolution. The perspectiveconcept of the Renaissance would be according toGiedion- one of the discoveries that better expresseda way of understanding space as a reflection of a glob-al conception of the structure of reality: by inventingperspective, the modern notion of individualism cameupon its artistic equivalence. In a perspective repre-sentation, every element is related to one and only onepoint of view which is that of the viewer.1That conception of perspective was the perfectmetaphor which enthusiastically expressed the artis-tic, philosophical, scientific and religious paradigm ofa whole era. Authors like Filippo Brunelleschi whowas a jeweller, linguist, mathematic, engineer, sculp-tor and architect- or Leonardo Da Vinci, may be illus-trative examples of a world vision which could inte-

grate in the same individual a kind of knowledgesimultaneously embracing the domains of pure sci-ence, philosophy, technology, craftsmanship and themain creative arts.Renaissance art of painting established the main prin-ciples of a new kind of vision way before Architec-ture, thus anticipating what would happen again fivehundred years later in modern revolution.Departing from this point, and after a quick journeyalong architectural history always related to the evo-lution of technology and the discovery of new build-ing materials, Gideon will reach the modern revolu-tion with its new space -time conce ption . As ithappened at the very beginnings of the renaissance,several new trends in painting appeared at the time,preceding architecture; among them, Cubism wasspecially outstanding.

The determining innovation in this global and newhuman knowledge conception, is the considerationof industry and technique as new realities that wereonly related to practical, material and physicallyfunctional aspects of existence, so consigning artand humanistic knowledge to the domain of thinksthat are useless, a terri tory which, supposedly, isautonomous and isolated of the material problemsof our daily existence.That kind of dissociation leaves to Gideon- no doubtsabout the seriousness of its negative consequences:

EGA-Utopia Sincretica y Simbolos Cosmologicos en Le Corbusier

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