The exhibition revisits the remarkable yet often overlooked work of Polish architect Maciej Nowicki,
Chandigarh, a city globally celebrated as a landmark of modernist planning, turned its gaze inward this week—towards a vision that was never fully realized, yet never entirely disappeared. The inauguration of the exhibition ‘Humanist Modernity: The Unbuilt Chandigarh of Maciej Nowicki’ at the Government Museum and Art Gallery in Chandigarh on 12 May 2026 unfolded as both a cultural event and an intellectual reckoning, d r a w i n g a r c h i t e c t s , scholars, diplomats, and policymakers into a shared reflection on the city’s alternate past.
The exhibition revisits the remarkable yet often overlooked work of Polish architect Maciej Nowicki, whose early master plan for Chandigarh proposed a radically human-centric approach to urban design. Through a compelling display of original drawings, plans, and archival material, the exhibition reconstructs a vision shaped as much by post-war Europe as by the climatic and cultural realities of the Indian subcontinent.
Opening the evening, Dr. Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, IAS, Secretary, Culture, welcomed the gathering, setting the tone for a programme that moved seamlessly between diplomacy, design, and dialogue. The event featured addresses by Mr. Kacper Kępiński, Deputy Director at the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning (NIAIU), Warsaw, Dr. Piotr Antoni Świtalski, Head of Mission of the Republic of Poland to India, and H. Rajesh Prasad, IAS, W/Chief Secretary.
During his address, H Rajesh Prasad said, “It is a matter of pride for Chandigarh to host an exhibition on one of the greatest architects of his time, Maciej Nowicki. Chandigarh might have taken a different shape had Nowicki not met with an untimely demise, though traces of his vision can still be seen in French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier›s designs.”
Addressing the gathering, Dr Switalski recollected, “Maciej Nowicki’s designs inspired generations of architects and reflected a deep sensitivity towards human values, culture and the environment. Had Nowicki continued his work on Chandigarh, elements inspired by the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita may also have found expression in the city›s architectural vision.”
For Kacper Kępiński, Deputy Director at the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning (NIAiU), who also curated the exhibition, Chandigarh is not merely a host city but the very ground where Nowicki’s ideas achieved their most profound—and unfinished—expression. “Chandigarh is not just the destination of this exhibition,” he observed. “It is the place where the ideas it traces finally found their most ambitious expression and their most unresolved question.”
Kępiński traced Nowicki’s intellectual journey from the ruins of war-ravaged Warsaw to the plains of Punjab, emphasizing that his approach to urbanism was never about imposing form but about responding to life itself. “Nowicki first argued that a city is an organism, not a collection of functions,” he said, adding that the famed “Leaf Plan” for Chandigarh emerged not as a transplant of European modernism but as “a response to the topography of the Punjab plains, to the direction of the winds, to the logic of how a new city grows from a centre outward.”
At the heart of the exhibition is this very “Leaf Plan”—a fan-shaped urban composition structured through a system of green corridors, neighbourhood units, and civic spaces. The design foregrounded climate responsiveness, community interaction, and the emotional experience of space, envisioning a city that would grow organically rather than function mechanically. From a monumental domed parliament in the Capitol Complex to intricately planned residential superblocks, Nowicki’s Chandigarh was as poetic as it was practical.
A key highlight of the evening was the screening of a six-minute pilot film announcing a forthcoming documentary on Nowicki. Produced by the Polish Institute and directed by Suraj Kumar, the film offered a succinct yet evocative entry point into the architect’s philosophy and legacy. It situates Nowicki’s work within a broader historical and architectural continuum, setting the stage for a full-length documentary that promises to further explore his enduring relevance.
What gives the exhibition its intellectual depth is its insistence that Nowicki’s story did not end with his untimely death in 1950. “His ideas survived the plan that replaced them,” Kępiński noted. “Researchers working in Chandigarh today can trace the principles of his humanist urbanism in the very fabric of the city as it was built. The Leaf Plan became a palimpsest.”
Indeed, the exhibition unfolds as a journey across geographies—Warsaw, New York, Raleigh, and finally Chandigarh—mapping the evolution of an architectural philosophy shaped by destruction, experimentation, and possibility. “Warsaw taught Nowicki that rebuilding a city means deciding what a city is for. Raleigh proved that structure and space could be designed as one thing, not two,” Kępiński explained. “Chandigarh was where both of those lessons were brought to their largest scale.”
Importantly, the exhibition also repositions authorship, acknowledging the collaborative nature of this intellectual legacy. “This is not an exhibition about one man,” Kępiński asserted. “Stanisława Nowicka and Maciej Nowicki jointly developed the ideas and the design method we call humanist modernism.” He highlighted her pioneering role as the first woman to become a full professor of architecture in the United States, underscoring how her teaching carried forward their shared vision for decades.
As the evening concluded with a felicitation ceremony, ceremonial lamp lighting, and a guided walkthrough of the exhibition, the conversations it sparked continued over high tea—spilling into discussions on architecture, memory, and the future of urban India. The vote of thanks was delivered by Ms. Małgorzata Wejsis-Gołębiak, Director of the Polish Institute, who emphasized the importance of such cross-cultural engagements in deepening historical understanding.
The exhibition also highlights Nowicki’s international architectural contributions, including his association with the design process of the United Nations Headquarters in New York and the iconic Dorton Arena in North Carolina. The exhibition will remain open for public viewing till July 15, 2026.
