“And you know what he did?”

What does it mean to build in Auroville?

When you ask this question to Aurovilians who are, or were, involved in construction, you will inevitably notice their tired smile before they start to tell you about all the difficulties involved with construction in Auroville. Pierre is no exception. With a work force of 250 people, he is Auroville’s largest contractor, responsible for nearly all the major buildings. The average Aurovilian catches only passing glimpses of him when he speeds by on his motorcycle.

“I start at 6 am, informing everyone what is expected of him. I make really a pucca planning. The rest of the day is spent with meetings, site-inspections and, most important of all, with correcting all that went wrong that day. I tell you, it is nor easy!!”

When Pierre elaborates on the nature of these problems, one is forced to think about what Sri Aurobindo wrote about the lack of consciousness in relation to matter in India:

“It is this revolt of Spirit against Matter that for two thousand years, since Buddhism disturbed the balance of the old Aryan world, has dominated increasingly the Indian mind. …”

Pierre: “The basic problem is that the workers do not have a conscious relation with matter. Their minds are not in the work. For example, it is extremely rare when a worker realises that if he continues in such and such a way, a problem will come up later. And if he realises it, he will never try to find a solution for the problem himself. Which means that I have either to demolish the work when I come for site inspection, or that I meet a worker who informs me about the difficulties but who has not done anything in the meantime. This means that heavy site-supervision is absolutely necessary, and it is very difficult to find people for that. On the other hand, the quality of the work of a good mason can certainly stand the test, and is often even better than that of any mason in the West. 

“Another problem, even worse than the first, is the frequent and unnotified absences of workers. This finds its basis in the religious and social lives in the villages around Auroville where most of the workers come from. Every marriage, each burial has to be attended to by all villagers, including your workers. When there is a fight in the village, you can be certain that you won’t see your workers next day. And as most workers have court cases going on – I dare say at least one out of every three – they have to attend court regularly, again resulting in unnotified absences. It seems to be impossible for them to inform me one day in advance.

“And then there is the social status of the woman. It is, for example, impossible for her to go alone to a hospital. Her husband has to accompany her.

“Last but not least, there is the problem caused by fellow-Aurovilians, who ‘steal’ the workers by paying them some extra rupees. This bars your attempts to create good working teams, and it goes without saying that it spoils the atmosphere amongst the workers. And of course it has its consequences for the Auroville economy. 

“All this results in obstruction of the work. You come to the site early morning, to see that for whatever reason only half of the masons have come. That very moment your planning vanishes in thin air. You know that your ‘client’ expects you to be ready with the building at a certain time, and you feel utterly frustrated.”

We talk about ways to change all this. In Pierre’s view, it is absolutely necessary that a kind of primary technical school be started in Auroville, where we can train masons, carpenters, bar-benders, electricians and so on. This will be very necessary for the building of the future city. The school will also be a means of teaching them another approach to matter.

Pierre is ready to cooperate in this.

And the ‘stealing’ of workers by Aurovilians? Pierre believes it is a question of growth of consciousness, in particular of collective consciousness.

Pierre: “Another aspect which makes building in Auroville complicated is the attitude of the ‘clients’. Most of them come from Europe, and have an aspiration for perfection to an extent which is not realisable here. Compared to Tamil Nadu or Pondicherry, Auroville clearly aims at very high standards – a challenge, another impossibility to transform into possibility, no doubt, but we need time for that. It implies the readiness to accept mistakes, the readiness to experiment, and the readiness to pay more for all that.”

Roger Anger, in a recent interview, said that Aurovilians had lost the capacity to dream. Does Pierre agree to this?

“Absolutely. And I think that this is mainly due to two reasons: the difficulties that strangled Auroville in its recent past, and the introduction of money into the internal circuits of Auroville. The first reason has passed by now. There remains the second reason, and I hope that we will soon find a solution for it.”

Asked about his dreams of the future, he says: “I dream and aspire for a not too distant future in which Aurovilians will be freed from the money-problem, that is to say, that money will not play a role internally. And next to that I aspire to expand my consciousness, so as to understand what goes on in the minds of my workers, so that I can understand their motives. After all, we live in their country. We have to adapt.

“Recently I visited the office where Roger Anger and other architects were working. Really, what a peace!! I just came back from a site with the usual problems plus a few more added, and it was really a transition …” Ascent from hell to heaven? “Well, that is too strongly expressed; there is also a joy in the service of construction, but sometimes I have the feeling that it is too well hidden by Mother.”

And the future of construction in Auroville? “I believe we can do it by ourselves. No doubt we will have to call for outside contractors at some time, as a ‘tool’ to realize the city, but it will be Aurovilians who will have to do the supervision of the work.

“And if tomorrow they ask me to build a two crore project, I am sure we can do it. We’ll have to change our working structures, but we will do it.”