In memoriam - André Hababou

André, one of Auroville’s early architects, arrived in Auroville in 1968, aged 26. On the invitation of the Mother, he started working with Roger Anger, Auroville’s chief architect, and was his first draughtsman.

André was originally from Tunisia and spent the first 13 years of his life there. At the age of 14, he moved to France and attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts, where he studied Arts and Architecture. He became a painter and worked in architectural offices.

Through a chance meeting with an artist in Marseille, André’s interest in spirituality was awakened. He read The Adventure of Consciousness and a brochure on Auroville. On its first page, there was a picture of the Galaxy, the Charter, The Dream and a photo of Mother. It was like a revelation, an immense joy. “But this is where I must live!”

After selling his paintings he came to India overland. When he arrived in the Auroville area, he was taken aback because he did not find even the beginnings of a city he had been expecting. However, “I wasn’t disappointed – I wasn’t happy either – and I told myself that it was up to us to build the city; that we had to transform ourselves through doing it. It was a process that had meaning.”

André began living in Auroville and working under the guidance of Roger Anger, and for the next 40 years, he helped create numerous private residences, apartment buildings and commercial facilities. His projects included the Centre for Research in Communication and Publication (CRCP) in Fraternity; Surrender community - a residential collective housing project; the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture in the International Zone; commercial units Shradhanjali & Auromode Atelier, both in the Industrial Zone; and the school at New Creation.

For André, expressing beauty and harmony linked with functionality was his aspiration and the most important aspect of his architectural work in Auroville.

André passed away on the night of 17 to 18 April. His burial took place at Auroville Burial Ground on April 20, the day he would have been 83.

An autobiography by André Hababou (previously published in French) is now available in English at the Visitors Centre bookshop, under the title From Tunis to Auroville, In search of Truth.