March 22, 2021, marks the 125th birth anniversary of Swiss architect Pierre Jeanneret who played a huge role in designing Chandigarh along with Le Corbusier.
Born in Geneva on March 22, 1896, Jeanneret graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts. It was in Paris that Le Corbusier whose formal name was Charles-Édouard Jeanneret took on the role of Pierre Jeanneret’s mentor, and the two entered into a partnership which lasted from the early 1920s until 1940.
Pierre Jeanneret lived in Chandigarh for 15 years from 1950 to 1965. The credit for training the first generation of architects in the city also goes to Jeanneret. He loved the city so much that he had said that no matter where he takes his last breath, his ashes should be flown to Chandigarh. He breathed his last in 1967 in Geneva, Switzerland and in 1970, his niece reached City Beautiful with his which were scattered at Sukhna Lake.
Jeanneret designed various important buildings in the city, such as government schools, houses, Le Corbusier Centre, PU’s Gandhi Bhawan, MLA Hostel, Town Hall Building, Central Library (PU), PU Administrative Office, AC Joshi Library (PU), Fine Arts Building and Museum (PU); government houses in Sector-2, 3, 7, 11, 15, 20, 22, 24, 27 and 28; CCET-26; nursery schools in Sector-7, 16, 22 and 23; Secondary School of Sector-22 and GMSSS-10. He also designed furniture and manhole covers. Experts say that Pierre designed three types of manhole covers.
Jeanneret had himself designed the house where he spent 11 years of his life in Sector 5 during the construction of Chandigarh. It was been given the shape of a museum and inaugurated in 2017 by Administrator VP Singh Badnore.
