Le Corbusier's principles of city planning and their application in virtual environments

The objective of this thesis is to develop an approach to understanding the concept of ‘Virtual City’ by drawing information from the disciplines of architecture and city planning. The focus is mainly on exploring the concepts for planning virtual city environments. Based on principles developed by some of the eminent thinkers and town planners for real world cities, the thesis attempts to conclude that principles of modern urban planning can possibly form an effective strategy for the organization of information in virtual environments. A comparative analysis of Le Corbusier's planning principles is made in order to develop a metaphorical interpretation as the ‘Virtual City Interface’. This is supported by some visual concepts developed in due course of the research.; The focus of this discussion is to explore the possibilities on enhancing the user experience by creating a real time environment of a city on the screen. Architects and planners play a very important role in understanding and defining the concept of a real place. This discussion embodies and augments thoughts and perceptions into developing a virtual city environment, by establishing a metaphorical connection between the architectural language and virtuality. For this, I have chosen Le Corbusier's Chandigarh, the only realized city out of his many planned cities, as the main example of study. Chandigarh will be studied in detail, followed by an interface that will constitute its planning and design principles as applied to ‘Virtual Chandigarh’.*; *The dissertation includes a CD that is compound (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following applications: Windows 95/98 or better, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Office, Internet access.