Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry were part of the Chandigarh planning team along with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. Both of them had built before in Ghana and Nigeria, which officially qualified them as tropical climate architects. Maxwell Fry was one of the founding members of the MARS group (Modern Architecture Research Group). Both were MARS members at CIAM. Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry became involved with the Chandigarh project by the end of 1950. P.N. Thapar, administrative head of the Chandigarh project, and P.L. Varma, chief engineer of Punjab, who were responsible for finding new architects to build Chandigarh, noticed them as tropical architecture experts. Both of them were involved in the construction process for three to four years. Two years after having left Chandigarh they published their book “Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zone,” but the book didn’t refer specifically to the experiences in Chandigarh. According to Fry, the book referred to the 1943 exhibition catalogue “Brazil Builds” by Philip L. Goodwin. In 1954 Max Fry and Jane Drew founded the Tropical Architecture degree program together with Otto Koenigsberger at the AA School: “In the degree programme, architecture was developed on the basis of climatic and local conditions. The programme was designed to help architects acquire knowledge, for example, about climatic principles.” (Kothe, 2009) In 1964 Drew and Fry published “Tropical Architecture in the Dry and Humid Zone.” In the 1963 article “Architecture in the Tropics,” Jane Drew wrote the following on Chandigarh: “Architecture for the developing peoples; as they are now well called – the millions of India, Africa, and the Middle East who are fast becoming part of the modern world – is a very great problem, particularly since education is acquired more quickly than wealth. An architect, if he wishes to devote part of his life to helping such people, should know the basic requirements of tropical building and the great difference in building for a hot-dry or a hot-wet climate.” (Drew 1963)
Jane Drew was closely connected to Eulie Chowdhury, an architect in the Chandigarh project, while staying in Chandigarh. The Sri Lankan architect Minnette de Silva wrote: “Chandigarh got through its most difficult days with Jane staying on and acting as a ‘medium’ for Corb, Nehru, and the Punjab government. (...) Jane’s early workers’ quarters, the cheapest of their kind in Chandigarh, built around an existing village and mango grove (...) became one of the better housing units which were otherwise the less successful elements in Chandigarh.” (De Silva 1986) (MH)

Sources:
De Silva, Minnette (1986): "Minnette de Silva." In: Flower, Sile/Macfarlane, Jean/Plant, Ruth (Eds.) (1986): Jane B. Drew, architect. A tribute from colleagues and friends for her 75th birthday, 24th March 1986. Bristol: Centre for the Advancement of Architecture.
Drew, Jane B. (1963): "Indigenous Architecture: Architecture in the Tropics." In: Perspecta, Issue 8. 57-58.Fry, E.
Maxwell/Drew, Jane (1956): Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zone, London: Batsford.Fry, E.
Maxwell / Drew, Jane (1964): Tropical Architecture in the Dry and Humid Zones, New York: Reinhold.Kohte, Susanne (2009): “Tropical Architecture” In: Archithese, Issue 6/2009. 66-71.