Sectors. Chandigarh, read room by room Open in the atlas

Sector 14 · Panjab University · landmark

Gandhi Bhawan

A white concrete lotus on a pool of water, by the architect who built the city.

Where it sits in the city
This room’s memory is still to be written. Any owner memory of Panjab University, Gandhi Bhawan, or the campus.

Then & now

Then
Dedicated 1 December 1962.
Who
Pierre Jeanneret.
Before
Panjab University’s new Chandigarh campus, after the university left Lahore at Partition.

The OG move

A three-petal pinwheel plan in white grit concrete, set in a reflecting pool so it reads as a lotus floating on water; Jeanneret is said to have drawn the three-blade geometry from children’s pinwheel toys.

A fact that reframes it

In 2015 it became the first building in India to win a Getty “Keeping It Modern” grant (~$130,000), after water from its own pool began attacking the foundation and cladding fell off exposing the rebar.

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Sources (2)
  1. Pierre Jeanneret, dedicated 1 December 1962; three-petal lotus-on-water form
    getty.edu/foundation/initiatives/current/keeping_it_modern/report_library/gandhi_bhawan.html
  2. First building in India to win a Getty Keeping It Modern grant (~$130,000, 2015)
    dronah.org/conservation-planning-of-gandhi-bhavan/