documenting nek chand's rock garden, chandigarh
This project is funded by the AHRC, with the aim of documenting and cataloguing Nek Chand's Rock Garden located in Chandigarh, India.
Iain Jackson began his initial investigations into the Rock Garden in 1999, following a trip to Chandigarh to see the work of Le Corbusier. By 2001 and in collaboration with Dr. Soumyen Bandyopadhyay a paper was prepared and presented at the Global Built Environment Review symposium.
In 2003 following a successful grant from the AHRC, Iain Jackson started a full-time PhD at Liverpool School of Architecture, under the supervision of Dr. Soumyen Bandyopadhyay to record the work on site at the Rock Garden.
In 2004 Jackson revisited the garden and began undertaking some preliminary cataloguing and survey work. Two further visits were taken in 2005 and 2006 with undergraduate students from Liverpool School of Architecture who helped with the surveying and draughting work.
The thesis has set about investigating the position of the Rock Garden within postcolonial India and the impact that the Modernist city may have had upon Nek Chand's working methods and aesthetic choices.
To date the Rock Garden has been surveyed and all major structures and architectural components measured and drawn to scale. This task was undertaken using basic surveying skills with string, plumb weights and tape measures, as well as more high-tech approaches such as GPS. The area of the garden is just less than 18 acres, with the perimeter wall measuring 1kM.
In addition to the architectural works the rocks and sculptures have been catalogued, totalling almost 3000 individual works.
This project is due to end in August 2007, however it is the intention of both Dr. Soumyen Bandyopadhyay and Iain Jackson to continue the work briefly discussed above in future research projects.