»I don’t mistrust reality of which I hardly know anything. I just mistrust the picture of it that our senses deliver.«

Gerhard Richter

Blog Viewpoint

Look Back On Anger

A rare view of Roger Anger's extraordinary Auroville

  • After School I consists of two main volumes surrounding a tropical patio. (All photos: Joanne Pouzenc) 1 / 17  After School I consists of two main volumes surrounding a tropical patio. (All photos: Joanne Pouzenc)
  • The Matrimandir – Roger Anger’s masterpiece – built between 1971 and 2008. 2 / 17  The Matrimandir – Roger Anger’s masterpiece – built between 1971 and 2008.
  • All photos of the Matrimandir have to be authorised: only an official photographer is allowed to document the building inside or up close. Tourists gather at the gate to catch the one shot.   3 / 17  All photos of the Matrimandir have to be authorised: only an official photographer is allowed to document the building inside or up close. Tourists gather at the gate to catch the one shot.  
  • The Last School after Cyclone Thane had wreaked damage, leaving the building without its polyester modular roof, which was scattered in bits around the building. 4 / 17  The Last School after Cyclone Thane had wreaked damage, leaving the building without its polyester modular roof, which was scattered in bits around the building.
  • The ramped surround protects an amphitheatre where schoolers learn in an agora situation, whilst the ramp also provides a perfect smooth concrete play area. 5 / 17  The ramped surround protects an amphitheatre where schoolers learn in an agora situation, whilst the ramp also provides a perfect smooth concrete play area.
  • Once standing on a desert site, as seen in archival pictures, Last School is today surrounded by a forest, minimising its physical impact and contributing to its integration in the landscape. 6 / 17  Once standing on a desert site, as seen in archival pictures, Last School is today surrounded by a forest, minimising its physical impact and contributing to its integration in the landscape.
  • The entrance to Last School is formed by several sculptural elements, which underline how the arts are a foundation of the education there. 7 / 17  The entrance to Last School is formed by several sculptural elements, which underline how the arts are a foundation of the education there.
  • Last School main entrance ramp. 8 / 17  Last School main entrance ramp.
  • Anger’s research on form and materials is expressed here by prominent, sculptural gutters. Every element of architecture is reinterpreted and expressed, underlining both function and beauty. 9 / 17  Anger’s research on form and materials is expressed here by prominent, sculptural gutters. Every element of architecture is reinterpreted and expressed, underlining both function and beauty.
  • No School by Roger Anger, is today the Language Laboratory, where students learn foreign languages using new methodologies. 10 / 17  No School by Roger Anger, is today the Language Laboratory, where students learn foreign languages using new methodologies.
  • In Auroville, it's common for kids of three to speak three or more languages,... 11 / 17  In Auroville, it's common for kids of three to speak three or more languages,...
  • ... adapting themselves to their environment. 12 / 17  ... adapting themselves to their environment.
  • The massive pyramidal structure of After School II resisted the cyclone.  13 / 17  The massive pyramidal structure of After School II resisted the cyclone. 
  • At After School II, the schoolers can voluntarily join and experiment with art practices without any restriction of the technique or expectation of the outcome. Creativity is its own reward. 14 / 17  At After School II, the schoolers can voluntarily join and experiment with art practices without any restriction of the technique or expectation of the outcome. Creativity is its own reward.
  • The horizontal bands in the structure bring the required light into the interior of the building. 15 / 17  The horizontal bands in the structure bring the required light into the interior of the building.
  • The After School I beams are gutters – again showing how the structural and functional elements...  16 / 17  The After School I beams are gutters – again showing how the structural and functional elements... 
  • ...are expressed as part of the overall sculptural presence of the building. 17 / 17  ...are expressed as part of the overall sculptural presence of the building.

Auroville, or the “City of Dawn”, was founded in India in 1968 by the Parisian-born Mirra Alfassa, known to her followers as “the Mother”, on land that was then still desert. The goldly gleaming Matrimandir Temple, designed by French architect Roger Anger, is its show-stopping central structure and arguably its best-known building. However the series of educational buildings there, whilst less immediately striking in appearance, are more original in form, serving as physical manifestations of the Mother's radical vision for new models of education. Here architect Joanne Pouzenc reflects upon Anger’s thoughtful blending of function, structure, symbolism and theory.

Amidst unlikely desert surroundings 160 kilometres south of Chennai in Southern India, lies a small oasis in the form of an international community founded in 1968. Founded by Mirra Alfassa – “the Mother” – and her spiritual collaborator Sri Aurobindo, founder of the Pondicherry Ashram, Auroville was born of the will to make an independent country, the ethos of which would be reflected in the way people lived, learnt, shared – and built.

With the involvement of French architect Roger Anger (1923-2008) from the outset, the first buildings at Auroville were the result of experimentation more typically associated with sculpture than architecture. Built with time – not money – Auroville has developed a unique landscape and the quality of its 40 year old architecture remains striking even today.

The Matrimandir – Roger Anger’s masterpiece – built between 1971 and 2008.

Roger Anger was a well-known figure in the French architectural world, with a promising career, but his work suddenly stopped appearing in publications in his native France following his decision to help design and construct this Indian micro-nation from scratch. In collaboration with the Mother and strictly following her vision, Roger Anger developed several masterplans for what was intended to be a universal city, all based around a circular site plan. The last plan he produced featured a galaxy-shaped city where delineated sectors would shift the landscape into a formation reminiscent of a Kandinsky sketch. At the centre of the spiral a magnificent building would rise: the temple of the Mother.

It was only in 2008 that the Matrimandir finally opened - four decades after Roger Anger first presented the plans to Alfassa. Visiting this extraordinary structure remains a compelling and memorable architectural encounter. But alongside the Matrimandir, other more humble examples of the unique talent of this architect-sculptor still stand in Auroville.

Together with a couple of detached houses, Roger Anger, working according to the Mother’s vision for education to design, built four schools, which simultaneously provide a unique laboratory for educational experimentation, whilst being architectural objects of uncommon beauty. Hidden behind trees not far from the main entrance of Auroville, one could easily miss these structures which together represent the main elements of Roger Anger’s legacy to architecture, very different to the more conventional one he might have forged in France.

The massive pyramidal structure of After School II resisted the cyclone. 

The four buildings sit together as unique artefacts, each providing a different function and for a different stage of the Mother’s educational theory. The buildings, Last School, After School 1, After School 2 and No School – their names underlining the intention to overcome classical notions of education – emerge as if sculpted from the ground. There are no classrooms in Anger’s schools – as there are no subjects to be taught in the classical understanding of the term. The spaces reflect the idea of implementing knowledge in a fluid way without strict structure. In these schools, the teachers act as mediators and are asked to follow the students’ thoughts by explaining one topic out of another as they arise, bringing to educational theory a lesson in the potential of the unplanned.

The four schools are deliberately closed off to the outside world, in order to provide a secure, peaceful environment where pupils can focus. Working with this idea of definitive enclosure as a constraint, Anger had to come up with design solutions that would still provide ample light to the core of the buildings, which he did with finesse and ingenuity.

As both architect or sculptor, Anger particularly excelled in building with light, which is apparent in all his works at Auroville: from the perfect clarity of the ray of light striking the huge clear crystal located at the exact heart of the Matrimandir, to the horizontal fissures of light let into the sides of the After School 2 pyramids (which are still unrestored), and the ingenious system of polyester modular pieces of funnel-shaped roofing that provide constant light within the soft walls of the Last School, as well as necessary protective shade from the strong Indian sun. But Anger also designed windows to frame a piece of surrounding landscape from within the enclosed patio area, providing students with daily inspiration from nature.

No School by Roger Anger, is today the Language Laboratory, where students learn foreign languages using new methodologies.

The week before I visited, Cyclone Thane had devastated the area, leaving the roof of Last School blown off, yet the overall power of this ensemble of educational buildings at Auroville was still clear, as was the wider experimental aim of the site and its architecture itself: a whole system orientated towards a self-governing and self-sustaining vision for living.

– Joanne Pouzenc is a French architect, curator and researcher who is based Berlin. In 2012, she launched Post+Capitalist City in association with CollageLab, a one year cycle of architectural and urban competitions for prospective thinking and geopolitical fictions. In 2014, she coordinated and directed Berlin Unlimited, a festival for Arts, Architecture and Urban Research and earlier this year was part of the Make City curatorial team. 

www.joannepouzenc.com

Further reading on all things communal see uncube issue no 34: Commune Revisited, where we first introduced Auroville’s “Mothership”.

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