André Hababou

André Hababou, one of Auroville’s early architects, arrived in Auroville in 1968, aged 26. On invitation of the Mother, he started working with Roger Anger, Auroville’s chief architect, as 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, gradually André’s interest in spirituality was awakened. He began to read books by Indian spiritual masters, and eventually read The Adventure of Consciousness, which drew him, in 1968, to the Ashram in Pondicherry. A brochure on Auroville had just come out. On its first page, there was a picture of the Galaxy, the Charter, The Dream and a photo of Mother. When he saw this brochure, he felt a revelation, and an immense joy. “But this is where I must live!,” he said to himself.

Building Mother’s City

After selling his paintings in order to be able to travel, he then came to India overland, on the “hippie trail” so to say, which caused some initial difficulties at the Ashram. But after his meeting with the Mother, accompanied by Roger Anger, the difficulties were over. When he first came to the Auroville area, he was taken aback because he did not find even the beginnings of a city as he had been expecting after seeing the beautiful model in the brochure. He recollected that “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.”

Expressing Beauty and Harmony through Architecture

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. He is cited and published, most recently in the journal Architecture + Design.

His projects included among others 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, which is automatically linked with functionality, was his aspiration and the most important aspect of his architectural work in Auroville.

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

Sources: 

https://auroville.org/page/andr%C3%A9-hababou-3404

https://land.auroville.org/André-54-aurovilian-years/ 

André Hababou - Auroville Wiki

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.

(Submitted by Annemarie)