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Babel and Babylon

Babel and Babylon

Aztec cities

Aztec cities

Heavenly Jerusalem

Heavenly Jerusalem

The Fujian Tulou

The Fujian Tulou

Utopia

Utopia

Romorantin, capital of a kingdom...

Romorantin, capital of a kingdom...

The city of brotherly love

The city of brotherly love

Saint Petersburg, Peter's great city

Saint Petersburg, Peter's great city

Industry, socialism and utopia

Industry, socialism and utopia

Taking technology to new heights

Taking technology to new heights

Home sweet home

Home sweet home

A towering challenge...

A towering challenge...

New towns

New towns

Conjuring capitals

Conjuring capitals

Auroville: "divine anarchy"

Auroville: "divine anarchy"

Private cities

Private cities

Dubai: miracle or mirage?

Dubai: miracle or mirage?

All eyes on the horizon

All eyes on the horizon

Auroville: "divine anarchy"

Meanwhile, other inventions were appearing elsewhere, such as the project to build the utopian township of Auroville in southern India, embodying values inherent in the hippie movement.

Described by the city's figurehead (known as "The Mother") as "divine anarchy", Auroville was a spiritual attempt to implement the ideals of the 1970s. Hippie communitarianism engendered many more urban utopias in later years, such as Arcosanti in Arizona, a town built in the middle of the desert and designed by the architect Paolo Soleri based on the concept of "Arcology", a portmanteau of the words "architecture" and "ecology".

Model for the Auroville project
Roger Anger

© wikicommons

Auroville

Based on the work of philosopher and guru Sri Aurobindo, Auroville, near Puducherry, was designed as a universal township promoting peace and harmony "above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities." The city received UNESCO support from the outset for its promotion of a cosmopolitan utopia and began to take shape in 1968 following a donation of 25 square kilometers of land by the Indian government.

According to one of its designers, the French urban planner Roger Anger, "In Auroville, the city concept goes beyond established, rigid boundaries to promote freedom of association embodied by a magnetic attraction that symbolizes its message. This focal point will be a great sanctuary, a temple of truth, which rises up in the center of the spiritual city. With this in mind, we have chosen a radiocentric layout arranged around this garden of unity."

Four zones were laid out around this spiritual hub, which was called the Matrimandir: a residential zone, an industrial zone, a cultural zone and an international zone. Today, the city has a population of just over 2,000 people, two thirds of whom are Indian; the remaining inhabitants come from 40 countries around the world.