A new book, ‘Jeanneret Chandigarh: Catalogue Raisonné du Mobilier,’ celebrates Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret’s 15-year project to craft meaningful architecture for the Punjab capital.

In the mid-20th century, India was working on rebuilding itself after a long struggle for independence. After escaping centuries of Portuguese and British colonial rule, the work of crafting new symbols of cultural pride had only just begun. The identity crisis was true for Punjab especially, as new borders split the state in two, attaching Lahore to Pakistan and leaving the Indian part of the state in need of a new center. The national government hired Le Corbusier as an advisor to the Punjab Government to establish Chandigarh as the state&rsquo;s new capital.

Le Corbusier had been working on art and architecture all his life, achieving significant acclaim and even founding a studio in partnership with his cousin, architect and furniture designer Pierre Jeanneret, who would join him in India. The two worked on the project from 1952-1965, taking their time to carefully create all aspects of Chandigarh, from homes for all social classes to community centers to a range of forward-thinking furniture.

The result was a melding of local identities with the project heads&rsquo; French and Swiss roots, crafting an aesthetic symbol of hope for building new communities in a cosmopolitan, independent India. And in addition to its cultural significance, the city was an avant-garde wonder, with the fifteen years of work fostering spaces that would visually stun while being able to hold far more residents than initially planned.

Building a city from the ground up in one fell swoop is a fascinating feat, and while it was already an inspirational moment at the time, recent auctions have brought new attention to the Chandigarh project. One such person who would spread the word is Jacques Dworczak, who discovered the town upon one of his many visits to India out of his interest in ship breaking. From then on, he couldn&rsquo;t shake his enthusiasm and began collecting as much information as he could, from archives, museums, and the site itself, to gain a deeper perspective to share.

&ldquo;It completely redirected my life&rsquo;s work,&rdquo; Dworczak says of encountering Chandigarh for the first time. &ldquo;The Punjab capital project&rsquo;s innovative character, bold architecture, and aesthetic audacity captivated me, and from that moment I never stopped sharing my enthusiasm for this singular episode of design history.&rdquo;

The 343-page architectural tome&mdash;out via <a href="https://www.assouline.com/" target="_blank">Assouline</a>&mdash;gives the world a deeper look into Chandigarh than ever before, with vast collections of furniture alongside architectural information and historical and cultural context. The result is a celebration of rebirth in India as well as the expert work of Jeanneret and Le Corbusier, and captivates with its meaning as much as it does visually. Dworczak gave L&rsquo;Officiel USA a closer look at the intense nature of researching the project, the most fascinating piece of furniture he discovered, and what he hopes readers take away.

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Tell us a bit about your interests.

Ever since I was young, I&rsquo;ve always been interested in art objects and antiques, and I&rsquo;ve explored subjects like Breton furniture, Art Nouveau ironwork, Art Deco furniture, and marine antiques, among many others. My drive to perfectly master those subjects stems from my desire to travel in France and abroad. In 1992, I became an expert in art objects of 19th-century furniture and for marine objects and antiques.

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What sparked your interest in the Chandigarh project?

The art itself and the art of learning about this crazy project. The construction of this city was, at the time, a real exploit and a challenge. It was a post-war era, closely following India&rsquo;s independence in a zone very far away from Europe and not easily accessible. It was then easier to exclusively use local resources and materials. The difficulties they had to face during this project never dented the fabulous dream of Le Corbusier and PJ to build an avant-garde city that still offers its residents a very rare quality of life in India to date.

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What was the most fascinating piece you discovered?

After many visits to the City Museum in Chandigarh, I was admiring one piece in particular: a teak and iron prototypic chair that came from Pierre Jeanneret&rsquo;s house in Chandigarh. It was apparently a unique piece, but I was delighted to find out that another exact piece was offered by Pierre Jeanneret to one of his close collaborators. This chair was exhibited during the Paris exhibition at L&rsquo;Eclaireur Gallery, rue Malheur, in March.

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The chair mentioned above / Assouline

What was the significance of the chairs being made in different places?

Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier supervised construction for a range of furniture designed for public and private buildings, wisely using trees from the deforestation of construction sites&mdash;the trees cut to build the city were also used to create the furniture. That&rsquo;s why you can find in Chandigarh furniture made with all local wood varieties such as teak, rosewood tree, cashew tree, and mango tree. In addition of being very profitable (financially speaking), this system (using local resources and local economy) offers very modern solutions. Carpentry workshops, even small ones, emphasize the benefits of a local geographical implantation, an immediate adaptability, and a human scale machining system, that results in products that keep a real artisanal quality.

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Why did you choose to highlight these specific pieces of furniture?

After 15 years of research, I challenged myself to try to gather all the information I had collected to create a detailed and complete piece of work, which had never been done before. Today, my wish is to share and enable people to discover this book and all its knowledge.

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What do you hope readers take away in learning about the Chandigarh project through your book?

This book is a didactic tool and an inventory as comprehensive as possible of the furniture made in the Chandigarh project. The catalogue raisonn&eacute; format offers to amateurs and professionals the possibility to identify and estimate a piece using the same book. This book also reveals the different wood varieties used, the many marks/signs on furniture (non-identified until recently) and the different furniture families based on the theory of arithmosophy or semiology. Assouline was able to transform my encyclopedic rigidity into a beautiful art book. &nbsp;

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What&rsquo;s next for you? Do you have any books or projects currently in development?

As it is very difficult for me to conquer my passions and impossible to satisfy them, I always keep researching. With a 114 km2 surface, Chandigarh was initially planned for 150,000 residents. This number was then changed to 500,000 during the construction of the city. The city now has 1,500,000 residents and probably still has a lot of treasure and information I still need to discover. A second book is already in the works.

Chandigarh: India’s Center of Forgotten Avant-Garde Excellence

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