Manhole Cover, from Chandigarh, India, circa 1951-1954

In August 1947, the Indian subcontinent gained independence from the United Kingdom, with a new division between the Indian Union and the Federal Republic of Pakistan. Independence was accompanied by a vast plan to modernize the country, in particular through land development and over the following years, around a hundred new cities were built, with Chandigarh occupying a key position as the new capital of the Punjab province. Prime minister Nehru commissioned Le Corbusier to design and build Chandigarh, giving him carte blanche. The scale of the project required him to assemble a large team of associates, including his cousin Pierre Jeanneret who designed the furniture of the new public and private spaces. Determined to make Chandigarh a demonstration of his architectural theories, the city's layout is organized according to the Modulor: a system the architect intended as an instrument of harmonization based on the height of the human body and the divine proportion of the golden ratio. The city's distinct layout plan is reproduced on the present manhole cover, which further exemplifies its symbolism and testifies to Le Corbusier's attention to detail as well as to the whole, and to the project's emphasis on modernity: in big cities sanitation was a vital stage in the improvement of everyday life.