The only museum in Japan specializing in architectural models, the ARCHI-DEPOT Museum on Tennozu Isle, is holding its first special exhibition since its renovation, "Le Corbusier / Chandigarh Exhibition: Creation and Context," from May 26th to July 16th.

Le Corbusier, Sketch of the Capital, with Floor Plan and Perspective Drawing, with Caption, Chandigarh
1950-1965 July 24th, 1951 Collection Le Corbusier Foundation
Le Corbusier is known as one of the greatest architects of the modern era. As evidenced by his "Five Principles of Modern Architecture," his work has been thought to be rooted in an image of a world developing alongside rationalist thinking and technological innovation, and based on the belief that a single universal logic could be applied worldwide. However, it is less known that he paid close attention to the planning context, including the local environment, landscape, climate, and culture. This interest served as a direct source of inspiration for his architectural and urban designs, contributing to the creation of a more complex whole, particularly in his later works, such as those in Chandigarh, India.

Using Le Corbusier's Chandigarh projects as an example, this exhibition examines the relationship between his creations and the unique elements of India, a foreign environment far from Europe. The exhibition features rare architectural documents and models, original sketches, oil paintings, lithographs, and other artworks by the architect himself, as well as photographs and video works taken in Chandigarh by photographer Takashi Homma.

Le Corbusier, "Bulls XVIII," 1959, Collection of Taisei Corporation

In Chandigarh, Corbusier sought a language to monumentalize democracy and India's climate in a comprehensive manner. As a result, the Capitol Complex in particular was liberated from the rigid geometry that aimed for uniform universality that had dominated his earlier designs, and instead came to fruition as a complex whole, mixing geometric and picturesque elements. For this exhibition, we will recreate the interior of the Parliament Building, which forms one of its main components, using a giant model. Also on display will be Le Corbusier's oil painting "Bulls XVIII" (1959), known as an artist who left behind a large number of artworks, primarily paintings. Also on display will be "Between Two" (1964), a collection of lithographed poems and paintings created in his final years that summarizes his creative work as a movement between opposing concepts. New translations of Le Corbusier's poems (translated by Tanaka Mirai) will also be introduced for this exhibition.

Takashi Homma "High Court 1" 2013 Lambda print © Takashi Homma Courtesy of TARO NASU
From the very early stages of planning in Chandigarh, Le Corbusier is said to have paid particular attention to the layout and overall scale of the buildings in the Capitol Complex, as well as their relationship with the Himalayan range that stretches out to the background. For this project, the three buildings of the Capitol Complex - the High Court, the Parliament Building, and the Government Building - have been newly recreated at 1/100 scale and are positioned on the exhibition room floor in the same order as their actual spacing. Visitors can wander freely through the complex, experiencing the density and distances between the buildings that Corbusier intended. Also on display are photographs and video works from photographer Takashi Homma's "Chandigarh" series, including some never-before-seen works. This work is composed with the wind, scents, and light filtering through Chandigarh in mind. The entire planned city of Chandigarh is, in a sense, a single structure. The scale of each building, enveloped in the city, is subtly conveyed, capturing the lives of the people who live there and the flow of time. This work truly captures the relationship between architecture and the surrounding climate, a focus of Corbusier's attention. This work complements the reality of Chandigarh, a city that cannot be fully conveyed through a model alone. This seven-part exhibition is unique to this new museum, which is not only a "museum" that makes architectural models widely available to the public, but also has a specialized "preservation" function for models. The wide variety of exhibits allows visitors to get a sense of what Le Corbusier saw, heard, felt, thought, and tried to express there, while also providing an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the spirit that dwells in Le Corbusier's work, which sought to transcend modern thought.