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The ‘Galaxy’ plan: Another View

 
Gilles came to Auroville in 1980. He is a civil engineer who specialized in Town Planning. For the last three years he coordinated the work of the Auroville Resource Center (ARC) which was set up to provide a holistic, integrated approach to the future development of Auroville. Below he gives his views on the basic criteria that a master plan for Auroville should fulfill, and he examines the ‘Galaxy’ plan of Roger and his associates in the light of these desired criteria.

What should be the basic criteria for Auroville’s master plan? Firstly, flexibility. A master plan is a spatial organization framework, so it is important to recall what Mother said about organization: “That is the great error of Governments; they make a framework and say ‘Here you are, we have set this up and now we must live by it’, and so of course they crush life and prevent it from progressing.” (30.12.67) And She stressed, “Rules should arise according to the requirements. Plasticity and swiftness are needed in order to keep up with world movements so as not to fall behind the universal progress.” (19.8.66)

Auroville is a living experiment. In the context of Auroville this means what is needed in a plan is a simple framework which allows the community to experiment, to take account of what it has learned over the years and to incorporate positive contributions, even if they were not envisaged in the original planning stages.

The second major criterion is appropriateness. Auroville has not been located on some uninhabited paradise in the Pacific; it has been put right in the middle of the mess; so that we become fully conscious of it and suffocate so much that we are compelled to work on it, using inner and outer means. On a global level there are environmental devastation, pollution and radical economic an political inequalities be tween the developed and the developing nations (the North-South divide). More specifically, there are the particular problems of India and then, locally, in Auroville, there are the challenges of the regeneration of our environment, the reconstruction of rural life and our own collective process.

Mother wanted Her city – “the City the Earth Needs” – to become the focus of a contagion process, that it would act as a model for the region and for the whole world. But if it is to be a model, it must be relevant to the needs of the larger sphere and come up with solutions which are both appropriate and reproducible. This means, for example, that its development should be sustainable and ecologically appropriate, and that it should take into account local, economic, climatic and environmental factors, and the needs of the surrounding villagers.

In the light of these considerations, let us examine the proposed Auroville master plan, which is based upon Roger’s ‘Galaxy’ design, completed in 1967.

First, the area of agreement. There is no dispute about the salient features of the original concept of the city – the four zones surrounding Matrimandir, the inner ring road (the crown), the need to find ways to express the “lines of force” of the Galaxy, the need for density in construction and the general spirit of unity in diversity.

As a skeleton to be adapted to existing conditions, the Galaxy is acceptable. But in its details, the master-plan is in its present state inappropriate. Why?

  1. It does not take account of local realities. The Galaxy was designed in Paris in 1967 without any reference to the local situation – the environment, the socio-cultural context, etc. It is an imposition on nature, the villages and the Aurovilians, though it intends to create a set-up for their harmonious development. For example, the site will have to be adapted to the design – by bulldozer for example – rather than vice versa. Also, it does not allow for the incorporation of new ideas and solutions that have evolved over the last 20 years.

  2. The large structures of the Galaxy need to be implemented in one go. But adequate funding is not available and we have only acquired land piece-meal.

  3. The Galaxy as envisaged will consume vast amounts of energy, both in construction and maintenance. For example, enormous amounts of cement will be needed, and the large lakes and canals planned are dependent upon the assumption of a plentiful water supply, which may not exist.

In other words, the detailed development that is proposed in the Galaxy plan is precisely the kind that is ruining the earth. It represents the greediness of the North (the industrialized nations) in exploiting the world’s resources. In a sense, it symbolizes the dream of the developers of the sixties, before the energy crisis and before we started to understand that our path of development leads humanity to a catastrophe. The real challenge before us is to retain the dynamic power of the Galaxy while allowing it to become a model of sustainable and appropriate development, both for the region and for the world.