Auroville. The City the Earth Needs

Roger Anger (1923–2008) was one of the most prolific architects in France during the 1950s and 1960s. His unique architectural language is characterized by sculptural plasticity and individualized, timeless modernity. In 1965, he was appointed chief architect of Auroville, an idealistic city conceived in South India. The city’s founder, Mirra Alfassa, asked the architect to design “the city the earth needs” as a model city for 50,000 inhabitants. The experimental nature of the Auroville project, in the context of rapidly urbanizing India, took up Alfassa’s whole-hearted attention, where he set standards for the city of the future that could serve as a replicable model. He also undertook work for other new towns in India such as Vijaynagar, Kudrimukh, Faridabad, and Salem.