Chandigarh College of Architecture
The Chandigarh College of Architecture was established as part of the ‘Chandigarh Project’– the most significant and daring experiment in architecture and urban planning of the 20th century. As such, the driving force and mission of the college is also to fulfill the same ethos. The College is a premier institution of the country for imparting architectural education at the national, regional and city level. The college has been rated amongst the top 3 architectural institutions in the country since 2012 onwards.
Located in the Educational Zone of the city, the Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA) was established on 7th August 1961 at the behest of Le Corbusier. The College is housed in a sprawling campus of 9.5 acres with facilities for extracurricular activities and sports along with hostels for boys and girls. It offers a Bachelor of Architecture programme of five years duration with an annual intake of 40 students every year. The college is affiliated to Panjab University, Chandigarh and its B.Arch., M.Arch courses are approved by the Council of Architecture, India and the All India Council for Technical Education, India. In keeping pace with the technological advancements, the College has a well equipped air-conditioned student’s computer lab, state of the art library, smart classroom and well endowed Studios and workshop facilities. The College regularly conducts joint studio programmes with students from leading International architectural institutions. The College has a faculty strength with specialization in diverse fields ranging from Urban Design, Landscape Design, Town Planning, Interior Design, Building Technology and Architectural Conservation.
The Chandigarh College of Architecture also offers a full time (two year) M.Arch. course duly approved by Panjab University, Chandigarh. The main objective of the course is to train the undergraduate students of architecture in a manner that after graduation they would be sensitised to design the buildings/infrastructure in the town and cities in a more sustainable way. The M.Arch. programme at CCA is an opportunity for students (especially in northern India) to study in a government institution where faculty is very well experienced to mentor this course. Several visiting scholars from within India and foreign universities visit the college for research and would serve as external resource faculty and expert jury members for the course.
To make its mark at the national as well as international level, the college uses ‘the Chandigarh Experiment’ as an open text book for its teaching philosophy and methodology. It draws heavily upon from the work done by the great master architect-planner and his associates. As the growth of the city is an on-going process, the college uses every opportunity to take up real / live situations in the city to undertake studies, analyze them and use conclusions drawn from such ‘live’ case studies of architecture and urban planning. These are done in the form of seminars, elective subjects, case studies for thesis projects and also as on-site examples of evaluating architectural and planning aspects of the city. As far as possible, these are documented and presented both at the national and international forums either as papers by faculty or studies by students published in various journals and presented at various architectural forums.
Regarding its role at the regional level, the college has embedded in its syllabus – the socio-economic and physical characteristics of the region in terms of climate, vernacular traditions of built forms and other regional determinants that impact its architecture. Special emphasis is given on making students aware of architectural idiom and problems of building in the semi-hot and arid climates of Punjab and Haryana as well as the colder regions of the surrounding Shivalik Hills.
The role of the college at the local level is fulfilled by its continuous interaction with the Department of Urban Planning of the Chandigarh Administration, by playing a symbiotic role in frequently participating in live architectural and urban planning issues of the city and putting the students and faculty to work on them. As such the college attempts to transcend its fundamental and elementary role of imparting education that would sensitize students to the diverse aspects of the profession and train them to work with equal facility in all kinds of situations. We also believe that the role of any premier educational institution extends much beyond the mere task of “Transfer of Knowledge” to a continuous “Creation of Knowledge”. This mission is being realized through the promotion and support of extensive research and documentation projects, the results of which are published for use of scholars in India and abroad.
In addition to the above the involvement of members of the faculty and the students in numerous consultancy projects helps to build an awareness of this extended role at all levels.