Sell your city’s utilities ! Chandigarh still serves as the
capital of Punjab, India. The city was designed as a modernist
‘oeuvre-total’ by Le Corbusier in the 50’s. He conceived
everything from the city plan, to the government buildings, the
urban equipment, official furniture, logos and identity. Start
from scratch, make it functional, and liveable. In 2010, the
city is worth a lot, as a design good, within the plains of
Punjab, India, where people still struggle to define their
economy. Le Corbusier’s identity, beyond its true functionality,
is being sold for cool-hunters all over the world, from its
manholes (21 000$), city lamps (30 000$), and magistrate chairs
(up to 30 000 $). Punjab’s people rip their public goods off,
and make it worth more then modernist icons. Chandigarh manhole
cover. Auctioned at $ 21,600. June 5, 2007. Rockefeller Plaza,
New York. Jeanneret chairs at a jail in Chandigarh, after
inmates had restored them. Many of the city’s chairs had been
thrown out. Taken from the NYTimes. - I