A new breeze called Soffio

AV Today: You grew up in Auroville, studied abroad and then returned. Can you share something of your journey so far?

Dorle: I came to Auroville in 1976 when I was seven years old. My mother, sister and I lived first in Discipline, but when I was 10 years I joined the youth community Ami. I left Auroville in 1992 to study architecture in Münster, Germany. 

It wasn’t easy for an Auroville-grown child to adjust to the German mentality. I had no problem at school and the university; but I couldn’t relate to the excessively formal working environment. So as soon as I’d finished my studies, I went to work in The Netherlands at the architectural office where I had done my apprenticeship. I like the country and the people; their mentality is relaxed and so different from the German. You can even see the difference in the proportions of their houses. German houses have small windows; the Dutch have big open windows. Dutch architects, in my view, have a more grounded vision of proportions and aesthetics. 

It was a relief to interact on the informal level I was used to in Auroville. I picked up the Dutch language, in which I am now more fluent than German, and became a Dutch citizen a few years later, renouncing my German nationality. I worked in The Netherlands for about eight years, doing many diverse projects, among which were several housing projects, with a focus on prefabricated, energy-efficient housing. I returned to Auroville in 2010.

And you continued your architecture work?

I set up a “one man” office when I came back, but it took some time before serious architectural assignments came in. I worked for some time at L’avenir d’Auroville, Auroville’s Town Planning Department, and later for Auroville Design Consultants, an architectural office. In 2011, I started my first big project in Auroville, the design of the Farewell Centre. Other projects followed. Most recently, and parallel to the Soffio project, I did the design of the Re-Centre building for WasteLess and the Up-cycling Studio, all with a focus on the principles of climatically-appropriate architecture. 

In 2015, together with Anita, I submitted a project for clustered housing. The site permission process was tedious. The Town Development Council (TDC) took a long time evaluating different plots, but finally we received permission to build on the present site. The prescribed density was ‘very low’: clustered houses in a park-like setting, based on the Detailed Development Plan for sector I of the Residential Zone made by the visiting town planner, Luis Féduchi, in 2016. We designed a community of 10 houses for about 27 people, with a lot of greenery in between. 

Our first work was to study the site and see how to position the houses in order to secure cross ventilation in all the rooms, while providing a maximum of privacy, both visual and noise. This resulted in staggered houses, with most housing blocks placed 25-30 metres from each other. 

Then Anita dropped out, as she joined the TDC and couldn’t do both jobs. I continued alone. In May 2018, construction started. It took two and a half years.

And then you had to become a jack of all trades?

Oh yes. Together with Anita I’d done the plot layout and the basic grid of the houses. Afterwards I found the clients, designed the individual houses – seven big and three small units – prepared the Bill of Quantity, supervised the tendering, managed the money, supervised the construction, and did all the financial and technical administration. It was tough. I’m now in for a long holiday. 

You designed each house separately?

Each client had specific requests, and though I had not planned this – architects tend to go mad trying to meet all the differing demands – I had no choice. The basic grid of the houses is identical; but there are many differences. 

Did you have any problems being a woman functioning in the traditionally male building environment? 

No. I don’t have a mindset of being ‘a woman’. My upbringing was an advantage. My family has a ‘lack of men’ history: my grandfather was killed in the war, my father was never really a part of my life, my grandmother and mother were working women, so I never really felt that ‘being a woman’ should be any kind of hindrance or restriction. Probably growing up in Auroville in the early days also helped to make me self-sufficient and independent.

Did you receive help and advice from other Auroville architects when you took up this project?

Most of it I figured out by myself. I had built my first house in Ami when I was 19, and the years spent living in Auroville before I left for Germany and my later work experience in Europe had given me a pretty good base. But the work here is very different from Europe. Here you do your detailing based on what you know can be built. In Europe we came up with proposals which the engineers had to figure out. Here I tried to push the envelope and had lots of discussions with the contractor, the steel workers and the carpenters. Sometimes it worked, at other times it didn’t. And my site presence became a daily requirement. I learned that I had to repeat my instructions over and again, to the extent that I became notorious for repeating the same message at every concreting, such as “put the spacer before the concreting!” Soon the workers started showing me that they had already done it, the minute I came on site.

Why did you choose the name  ‘Soffio’? 

Soffio is the Italian word for ‘breeze’. It shows the focus of this project, which is cross-ventilation. I studied this concept for my graduation in 2001, and signed off with a thesis on cross-ventilation for tropical houses. At the time, I was thinking of high-density housing clusters, using compressed stabilized earth blocks. But for the Soffio project I dropped the earth block idea when I saw that it was not cost-effective and the blocks could not be made on site. I used ordinary fired bricks in a hybrid and load-bearing frame structure on a concrete pile foundation. 

Does the cross-ventilation work?

Yes. Those who moved in during the summer reported that it was six degrees cooler inside, as if the air conditioner was on. This is partly due to the cross ventilation, partly to the building materials we used – lime mortar and lime plaster for the walls, which absorb moisture and heat and ensure a good breathability, and sandwich panels as roof insulation to reduce the heat-gain and radiation into the houses at night. We used a minimum of concrete and steel. I focused on using natural and local materials wherever possible to keep the carbon footprint low. 

You also built your own house in Soffio?

(laughing) I know what you think – many Auroville architects have experienced the disadvantages of living in the community they built, as their former clients kept coming to them to resolve their housing problems. Let’s see how this pans out. We haven’t had our first community meeting yet, and I may bring this up. 

To what extent is Soffio an intentional community, in the sense that there is a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork and the residents share responsibilities and resources?

It isn’t. I was asked to build residences, not to build an intentional community or even a community with common facilities, such as a community kitchen and shared washing machines. I had the community experience when I was living in Ami, but this phase seems to be over in Auroville. There aren’t many communities where people have their meals together every day and where there is daily a deep community interaction. The residents of Soffio will probably meet once every few months to plan collective issues, such as the community landscaping and resolve problems that may arise. 

What did the Soffio houses cost?

The costs were in the range of 40-45 lakhs for a 100 square metre house. This included all development costs, a small septic tank for each housing cluster and separation facilities for black and grey water. We re-use the grey water for gardening. Each house has a provision for solar panels and for a solar hot water heater and it will be possible to install one or two air conditioners, but hopefully this will not be necessary. During construction, there was a slight cost increase of about 10%. Some of my clients complained about having to shell out the extra cash, but for me it is important that they received a house which is aesthetically pleasing and has a lot of quality. 

Would you like to do more housing projects?

I wouldn’t mind taking up another project, but then only the architecture and the site supervision, not the administrative part. This should be done by someone else. There are two plots neighbouring Soffio where a new project could start. One has a higher density, the other a comparable density to Soffio. Earlier, two architects had developed plans for these plots, but these didn’t take off. 

What are your views on the overall housing development in Auroville?

There is lots of room for improvement. Now that Soffio is finished, only one housing project, Vibrance, is under construction and it will probably take one to two years before it is finished. This is bad news for the many pre-Newcomers, Newcomers and Aurovilians in need of housing. New housing projects need to take off as soon as possible, given Auroville’s time-consuming bureaucracy in getting the required site and building permissions.