Le Corbusier: Album Punjab, 1951

The large-format album "Punjab Simla. Chandigarh, March 1951" is a notebook by the architect Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier filled the pages of the album with sketches and notes from his two-week stay in the area where Chandigarh, the new capital of the Indian state of Punjab, was to be established – an urban planning experiment that quickly became the most well-known example of a modern city foundation.

The album gathers both personal reflections of the architect as well as notes and solution sketches from meetings. It serves as a primary source for reconstructing the themes addressed by the small group of architects and government officials who developed the guidelines for the Chandigarh plan in just a few days. The faithful reprint of the album is complemented by a collection of previously unpublished photographs taken by Le Corbusier's cousin Pierre Jeanneret during this early expedition, capturing the landscape and the people before the new metropolis would completely transform the area. A detailed commentary by architectural historian Maristella Casciato fills a gap in research by reflecting on and contextualizing the diversity of topics covered in the notebook and tracing the feverish days during which the new capital was designed.