Climate and culture as design material: The government houses of Chandigarh by Pierre Jeanneret, a contemporary solution

The crises affecting contemporary global society underline the need for a design reflection. The study presents an interpretation of the work of the architect Pierre Jeanneret for the government houses in Chandigarh. These, raised with the function of welcoming many people from various social classes, are the focus of the dissertation, in which, starting from the scale of the neighbourhood, a series of projects have translated climate and culture into tools and materials of the project. Therefore, through the presentation of the individual solutions, the relationships between composition, use of local materials, technique and tradition will be highlighted, outlining a systematic and attentive approach to the specific site, interpreting the place in a modern perspective. Finally, the research presents a reflection on how Pierre Jeanneret’s project for domestic spaces can display a potential actualised approach, in which the needs related to climate and humanitarian crisis can be translated into opportunities for the project. This emphasizes the current difficulty in presenting a systematic design response, for which the development of a design sensitivity such as that presented by Pierre Jeanneret is instead hoped for