An exemplar for modernism: Le Corbusier's Adelaide drawing, urbanism and the Chandigarh plan

The paper closely examines a plan drawing of the city of Adelaide, South Australia, made by the architect Le Corbusier in 1950, shortly before he took up the commission to design the city of Chandigarh in the Indian Punjab. A series of parallels are made between the Adelaide drawing and the production of the Chandigarh master plan, which are used to re-open questions of Le Corbusier's famous design for the city and aspects of his urbanism. In doing so the paper also points to Adelaide's peculiar status as an exemplar for critical modernist agendas regarding the organisation and planning of cities subscribed to by Le Corbusier and earlier city reformers like Ebenezer Howard. The paper concludes by offering a fresh assessment of the role of technique and process in Le Corbusier's urban projects including Chandigarh, which the architect's Adelaide drawing can help to evidence.