Galaxy Plan
(B.V. Doshi:) “To me, Auroville implies ‘City of Dawn’. It is the city which is on the emergence, when the sun rises up, and you begin to see this new city: unimaginable, fantastic, the kind of world that is there.
When we did the regional plan in the surrounding areas and I saw those water bodies, I wondered, ‘what is happening to this place?’ At that time there were discussions on population, discussions on growth of Auroville itself. A lot of things were being discussed in the committees, and I was there in the committee.
The thing that I found was that Roger's plan of the Galaxy... to me it suggests a whole lot of visions. Visions of connectivity, potentials, diversities, huge amount of choices – including the potentials of getting a place for everybody. It was really the city of the universe. And why it is not happening, why it is not moving, I have no idea at all.
So the question is: should we talk of it as a city, or should we talk about ‘galaxy’? There's a big difference between the words ‘city’ and ‘galaxy’. I think we are talking about very small, micro level – and we are talking about Mother. It's a big paradox, a huge difference between the two statements.
So when you look at the Galaxy – and I remember, often when I saw the model, and when I had been thinking there, and when there was a discussion going on – first thing is, ‘what is galaxy?’ Galaxy is the magnet of the universe in which things move, and they move in a dynamic balance. That is what I know. And I'm just guessing. And everything can be absorbed, and everything can manifest, and everything adds its own value and ability to regenerate, revitalize. And I think that is ‘galaxy’. Galaxy is not a small house with a compound wall. It's a fluid thing, it has interconnections. It has many levels, it goes up and down, etc.
When the model was made, the model was not really representing the kind of galaxy that I had seen in Roger's plan. And I think the first thing we should know is: are we really talking about a building? Or are we talking about celebration of life? That's what I think Mother was talking about. How do you charge the souls to manifest their subtle existence and the purpose of their existence. Do we talk about this at all? Or are we talking about ‘my kitchen is not working,’ or ‘the costs are like this,’ or ‘I have no road,’ or ‘I have no water supply’... I think the issue is first, we should remove these words of architecture and building. We should talk about how do we celebrate life on this planet, and make a model.
So when you talk about celebration, you are talking about total sustainability relationships, potentials, expanding our ideas, expanding our horizons. And I think this is not happening. So we start talking about little things... we go to the canteen and we have our little plate, and we talk and this is our universe – is this really what we are talking? What Mother must be thinking!
And I think that plan shows you the micro, macro, all the levels of housing etc., can be built there. And Roger was upset because I was not working, I did not reply to him. And when I saw the Auromodele houses which he had done in the beginning... you could see how this person who comes from Paris to be here, who had a large practice, gives away everything and does these little things here... and he talks about climate, he talks about fluidity, he talks about visions, and he talks about lightness. And I think those are the things which are pioneering works.
Earlier photographs which I had seen, from Piero and others, thatched buildings and thatched houses, when the land was absolutely dry, barren land – there was an aspiration. There was a vision. And there was an idealism. And it was not talked about, ‘what is the population’. We always look at it as if it is a part of the universe. We are global. We are not local, we are not regional. We are not small people. I think this is where the first difference to me is.
And that should be removed. And we should talk about saying, ‘how do we understand what galaxies are’. We don't even know (I don't know at all), but when I imagine, when I think about it, there is a dynamic balance, and that balance generates energies, and those energies help the whole cosmic order of the universe. In this, health and hygiene things come – but more than that, the inner sensitivities which Mother is talking about, come out.
And I think we have to talk about not ourselves as beings – we have to talk about this galaxy which continues, and it will go on and on and on, and it will become a model. A model of life, a model of living.
What is happening is, given as architects we look at architecture, at building – this is not building, it is life. How do you celebrate life, how do you give life, how do you generate life, and how do you enrich life. And I think this is something which one has to talk about.”[1]
See also
- =1 "Meet the architect"
- Auroville Master Plan
- Roger Anger
- L'avenir d'Auroville
- Galaxy
- Timeline for Building Auroville, the Mother's Words