Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew's early housing and neighbourhood planning in Sector-22, Chandigarh

The city of Chandigarh, India, has received considerable interest since its design and construction in the early 1950s, mainly due to Le Corbusier's involvement in the scheme. More recent work has begun to critically examine the planning of the city and its components and to challenge the misconception of Le Corbusier as the sole author. This paper is concerned with the first portion of the city to be constructed, Sector-22, designed by the British architect Jane Drew, along with housing designs by her husband-collaborator Maxwell Fry (Pierre Jeanneret's equally important work is beyond the scope of this paper). It considers the influences behind their planning and the housing-type design, with particular focus on the notions of 'neighbourhood planning'. The paper argues that Fry's work with Thomas Adams from the 1920s is of particular importance to the Sector-22 layout, which was further informed by Drew's studies published immediately after the Second World War. Finally, their housing plans are considered, along with the contributions of their Indian colleagues - an important group who have largely been ignored in previous academic studies of the city.