Green

What remains from the green belt with which Le Corbusier supported to surround the city of Chandigarh? What is it condition? Is the green accessible, perceived by people? Walking along the borders of the city is not easy to identify the green corridor. Nonetheless still initial traces are recognizable along the initial urban borders. Despite not always accessible, the green still escorts the peripheral rounds. Its original with of 10km is today limited to few hundred meters in the best situation, but connections between undeveloped areas still exist. However the urban perimeter is splatter with different scale developments from hospitals to industries and army land reserves as well as with informal settlements that sprawl to meet their closeness formal urban neighbors.

Fig 1, One Side

By following the road in the North West border along sector 39, the green is discovered behind walls, inaccessible for the public, unperceived by drivers that everyday make use of the infrastructure. Then, the wall ends facilitating the access to a semi abandoned area with long extensions of concrete surface and a huge roof, a non-finish market development that wanted to take advantage of the remaining green space. From there is possible to look back and observe the city from the lasting nature. There is no trace of the build environment in the other side, but inversely the exuberant nature emerges. Did we get wrong with the side where we are supposed to be?

Fig 2, The Other Side