About the City
Auroville was based on the vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, who sought to create a new paradigm for humanity. Auroville was inaugurated 10 kilometers north of Pondicherry on a barren wasteland with the participation of 5,000 people from 125 countries and all Indian states, each of whom brought a handful of earth from their homeland to a marble clad lotus-bud shaped urn that still stands at the center of this planned city. They sought to create a new paradigm for humanity, Auroville was announced to the world as the city of the future and a city of universal culture. Its aim, an actual human unity.
French architect Roger Anger designed this city. The final plan housed four zones- in a radiating spiral movement around the city-center, and the Matrimandir, a central structure representing the soul of the city. More than a decade before Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn arrived in the Indian architectural scene, India’s first example of modern architecture, built prior to independence, was being realised in a small pocket of French India. Auroville is home to astounding creations like Town Hall Complex, by Anupama Kundoo Architects, and Auromodèle Houses by Roger Anger and André Hababou, to name a few.
150 kilometers south of Chennai, there is a Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, where he left complete responsibility of his ashram and disciples in the hands of The Mother. Pondicherry also has a stimulating cross-cultural history; hence, its built form lends to the town, a unique identity. One can witness a subtle blend of Tamil and French architecture in structures like, Golconde Dormitory by Antonin Raymond and George Nakashima (which is considered the first modernist building in India) and INTACH Pondicherry. While maintaining their individual identities, the two styles influence one another, evolving into a magnificent synthesis: Franco-Tamil architecture.
About the Book
This book is organized in eight itineraries. There are five itineraries for Auroville, structured around the master plan of the town, which is divided into four zones and the fifth itinerary is located in the zone that is outside the main circle of Auroville.
The three itineraries for Pondicherry are structured around the two main geographical zones of the city, the French and Tamil Quarters.
Contents of the book
About the Authors
Anupama Kundoo was born in Pune, India in 1967. She graduated from Sir JJ College of Architecture, University of Mumbai in 1989, and received her PhD degree from the TU Berlin in 2008. In 2013 Kundoo received an honorable mention in the ArcVision International Prize for Women in Architecture for ‘her dedication when approaching the problem of affordability of construction and sustainability in all aspects’.Her internationally recognized and award-winning architecture practice started in 1990, demonstrates a strong focus on material research and experimentation towards an architecture that has low environmental impact and is appropriate to the socio-economic context. Kundoo has built extensively in India and has had the experience of working, researching and teaching in a variety of cultural contexts across the world.
Yashoda Joshi, holds B. Arch from University of Pune and has worked and trained with some of the best architects in India such as Balkrishna Doshi, Christopher Benninger over last eighteen years. Currently, as an associate with Anupama Kundoo architects, she has been working on residential and research projects in India. For the last two years she has been working as an adjunct Faculty with Brick School of Architecture, Pune.
You can purchase the book from here.
Images