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Architecture.

Public space · Regionalism

Rock Garden of Chandigarh

Nek Chand · Chandigarh, India · 1976

Key featuresOutdoor rooms and passages built from broken ceramics, rubble and scrap, linked by narrow paths.

Architect
Nek Chand
Place
Chandigarh, India
Year
1976
Typology
Public space
Movement
Regionalism
Region
South Asia
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About Rock Garden of Chandigarh

The Rock Garden of Chandigarh is a sculpture garden in Chandigarh, India. It is also known as Nek Chand Saini's Rock Garden of Nathupur after its founder Nek Chand Saini, a government official who started building the garden secretly in his spare time in 1957. It has spread over an area of 40 acres (16 ha), and is completely built from industrial, home waste, and discarded items.

The Rock Garden sits near Sukhna Lake. It consists of man-made interlinked waterfalls and many other sculptures that have been made of scrap and other kinds of waste (bottles, glasses, bangles, tiles, ceramic pots, sinks, electrical waste, broken pipes, etc.) which are placed in walled paths.In his spare time, Nek Chand started collecting materials from demolition sites around the city. He recycled these materials into his own vision of the divine kingdom of Sukrani, choosing a gorge in a forest near Sukhna Lake for his work. The gorge had been designated as a land conservancy, a forest buffer established in 1902 that nothing could be built on. Chand's work was illegal, but he was able to hide it for 18 years before it was discovered by the authorities in 1975.

Shortened from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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