AUROVILLE’S 50th ANNIVERSARY 

Auroville is a universal city in south-India dedicated to the ideal of human unity based on the vision of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

It was founded the 28th of February in 1968 and designed by Roger Anger.

In terms of physical development, Auroville aims at becoming a model of the 'city of the future' or 'the city the earth needs'. It wants to show the world that future realisations in all fields of work will allow us to build beautiful cities where people sincerely looking towards a more harmonious future will want to live.

One of the most remarkable concepts of Auroville is its master plan, laid out in form of a galaxy. A galaxy in which several 'arms' seem to unwind from a central region. At the centre stands the Matrimandir, the ‘soul of Auroville’, a place for individual silent concentration. Radiating out beyond the Matrimandir Gardens are four Zones, each focusing on an important aspect of the township’s life: Industrial (north), Cultural (north east), Residential (south/south west) and International (west). Surrounding the city area is a Green Belt consisting of forested areas, farms and sanctuaries with scattered settlements for those involved in green work.

To compensate for the low-rise housing for the green city of Auroville, and still provide the required compactness and density, Roger Anger introduced urban structures that he called Lignes de Force (meaning Lines of Strength), the most distinct elements of the city concept. These extremely long structures rise above the rest of the city at one end, and gradually slope down over the entire length to reach the ground at its other end. In the residential zone, the towering heights are located towards the periphery of the city, their terraces facing the city centre, and in the industrial zone the reverse occurs, allowing a high density of office spaces to be accommodated in the city centre and low-rise production areas towards the periphery. The Lignes de Force structures enhance the dynamic spiralling movement of the town plan, absorb density with a minimum circulation on the ground through vertical development and provide vistas and views of the city itself from various viewpoints that would otherwise not be visible in the flat land. Roger believed that since the land was flat, the intention was to build the artificial levels by means of circular macrostructure, which would give the town its dynamic look, and this in turn would constitute the highest densification zone. Approximately 50% of the population would live and practice their activities in these high-density zones. The multistoreyed buildings would not be a dense, opaque mass; it would offer many transsections, views from the outside to inside and vice versa. This would create a shade of architecture, which would allow for undercover traffic and sudden outbursts of light within patios and elevated gardens.

With exception of these urban structures, Lignes de Force which Roger said, ‘were essential for the silhouette of the city’ and to allow remaining buildings to be really low thus permitting direct contact from anywhere to the city centre, he felt that all the areas of town’s development were planned with a great deal of flexibility. The Lignes de Force concept can be considered a culmination of all of Roger Anger’s previous research in large-scale housing and urbanisation experiments in Paris.

As Auroville was completing 50 years in February 28th 2018, it was time to take a step, an urban one, towards realising the city and involve in an international workshop students from other realities.