REALIZING A VISION
STARTING WITH A CITY PLAN:
The Client and the Architect
In 1965, the Mother invited the French architect, Roger Anger, to prepare the plan for this
new city based on her vision. Often there is speculation as to who actually was behind the
plan. Perhaps both: One the originator of the vision, the other a receptive instrument
capable of translating that vision.
What you have written is news to me – I know nothing about it. I told you already that I am
waiting for the architect of Auroville who is coming at the beginning of September and we
shall do together the plan of the town. I shall explain to him what I want and things will be
done accordingly. Nobody else has any say in the matter. If you sincerely want the Truth,
you must first abstain from believing all the stories people tell you, not always with a very
harmonious intention.
24 July 1965, Mother to Huta / Spirit of Auroville p.27 or History of Matrimandir 2004,
p.13
I strongly wish that we would stop referring to the Galaxy Plan as Roger Anger’s plan… It is
not my vision, but the logical result of the research and the Mother’s presence in particular.
Her inspiration and influence gave birth to the concept of the Galaxy. This concept contains
in its entirety the message of the Mother and the Dream…(she) gave sufficient explanations
concerning the basis of her concept of spiritual urbanism…I’d say it is not the image of the
Galaxy that imposes itself on Auroville, it is the necessity of the city corresponding to the
Mother’s guidelines that leads us to the Galaxy.
Roger Anger, Auroville Today, December 1988
