"Auroville wants to be a universal town where men

and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity

 Roger Anger

Auroville Language Laboratory & Tomatis

Vrit Integral Learning Centre

ANUPAMA KUNDU RESIDENCE

Pavilion of Tibetan Culture

The community of Auromodele

Private House Douceur Auroville 2004/6

Architect: Pino Marchese & Sheril Castelino

Materials of Construction Details:

Mud plastered compound walls R.C.C. frame structure and brick walls. Aerocon comfort tiles on roof slab. Polycarbonate skylights Solar pump & energy demand partly met by photovoltaics

Auroville Architecture

Construction materials used are mainly organic and natural including wood, mud, grass, stabilised earth bricks and fired bricks. Most of these homes have sustainable energy systems such as solar. Dirk & Chinmayi have built a waste water treatment system and have experimented with levitated water for their clay walls, and Rolf has rainwater catchment from the roof and a compost toilet.

Berdah house Auromodele, Auroville 2000/1

AUROVILLE EARTH INSTITUTE

VIKAS LAY-OUT 1448 m carpet area 23 apartments, collective kitchen and toilets for 50 people

 Vikas Community

The creation of this community was based on a particular spirit, life style and appropriate architectural design. It was related to Sri Aurobindos integral yoga and Aurovilles ideal. The extensive use of environmentally sound materials, appropriate building technologies, (earth and ferrocement), renewable energies (solar and wind) and ecological water management (watershed harvesting and biological waste water treatment), were the basis of its material implementation. Individual apartments, a few individual houses and common facilities were built. This project was the first development in Auroville, which used stabilised earth right from foundations to roof. To date, Vikas community still represents the most synthetic holistic development, which has been materialised in Auroville.

Renewable energy Solar water heaters Photovoltaic panels for the electricity Surface solar pumps for the gardens Submersible solar pump and wind pump Basement floor

Percolation system of the third building

Water management Rain water harvesting to aim zero run Biological wastewater treatments Earth management Soil for building was extracted from the Percolation systems to harvest rainwater Wastewater treatment pond Reservoirs for garden water

13 apartments on 4 floors (3 floors above a basement floor)

Section of the third building

Auroville Visitors Centre

The core function of the centre is to inform the visitors about the purpose of Auroville, its spiritual and material aim with exhibitions and audio-visuals. The complex is also a demonstration centre for sustainable technologies such as appropriate building material and technologies, watershed management and landscaping with indigenous plants, renewable energies, waste water recycling techniques etc.

Solar Kitchen
The aim of the project was to build a demonstration project a. In the use of SOLAR THERMAL ENERGY in steam generation. b. To provide for the nutritional needs of the present community of Auroville (1700 inhabitants approx :) including the meals at the schools, work places and for special occasions. c. To be a demonstration project for Appropriate building materials and technology, Solar Passive Architecture and Waste Water Recycling. http://www.aurovilledesign.com/solarkitchen.html

Auroville Kindergarten

The design of the buildings is a reinterpretation of the local vernacular style in a minimalist architectural language using earth as the predominant building material from foundation to roof. The spaces emerge out of a central space to the scale of a child to lessen the trauma on his/her first experience of spending time away from a nondomestic environment without an intimate adult around.

Auroville Illangarkal

Auroville as part of its regional development program undertakes several activities in partnership with local village bodies like the womens self help groups, youth clubs, adult literacy program, vocational and livelihood skills training and rural health centres. Ilangarkal School is the hub for some of these programs with class rooms / workshop spaces / crafts centre / library / dining +kitchen / admin / computer training and 2 dormitories for residential students.

The campus is designed a Mandala around a stepped pond cum amphitheatre. The compressed earth blocks used for the buildings are made from the excavation of this pond and roofs of the buildings are turfs that collect rain water and channel it to this pond.

Melur Meadows Housing Project

Melur Meadows is a gated enclave of 150 cottages on 9 acres between Coimbatore and Ooty hill station. The layout of the project follows the natural contours of the site which is shaped like bowl like in an amphitheater. There are 4 types of dwelling units on the terraces site offering private and public green spaces with the design of the cottages that allow for maximum outdoor living to recreate the proverbial village.

The design follows the natural slope of the land with no cut and fills respecting the

coastal dune formation and regulations with the built form scooping out small open to sky inner courts connected by a transparent walkway from the west entry to the east terraces overlooking the bay. Each space opens to these screened courts allowing visual privacy from the invasive developments around site.

The walls are exposed bricks in local brick tiles and the intermediate floors are all jack arches in the same bricks. The roof is concrete and thatch for heat insulation. The terraces and verandas are overlooking the sea and courts.

Nare - Jyoti Beach House

On a narrow site with minimal frontage to the Bay of Bengal on the Coromandel Coast north of the ex-French colonial town of Pondicherry; hemmed in on 3 sides by random unplanned structures the challenge was to create a 5 bedroom beach house that would be a retreat to peace and tranquillity.