Four designs for the new Matrimandir gardens

Auroville Today: Was the process for these four gardens different from that followed for the Garden of the Unexpected (see Auroville Today no 355, February, 2019)?

Hemant: We followed almost the same process, but there were two or three things mentioned in the feedback to that process which we tried to remedy. For example, it was felt there was community participation only at the end of the process, so we provided opportunities for this to happen throughout the process. This time around 105 Aurovilians signed up to be part of the panel which made the final design choice, and of these 75 sent feedback only at the final stage. But throughout the process only about three or four community members gave feedback, and very few people attended the general meeting where the chosen designers presented their work before integration. This was disappointing.

The other weakness of the previous process was there was not much feedback from the experts’ panel to the designers. This time we not only had an excellent panel of experts – including Narad, who was made chairman, as well as eminent landscape architects from India, France, Thailand and Japan – but they also gave very useful advice both to the participants and to those of us who were designing the process. Before the main design call went out, we did a community review of the four existing gardens which told us which gardens the community liked best, and why. The Thai expert (in a letter to Narad who agreed) pointed out this information was very important, so we included it in the design brief for the new gardens.

What were some of those findings from that community survey?

Hemant: The community wanted seating and more trees for shade in the gardens, and gardens that were more natural (there was a concern about the overuse of concrete in the existing gardens), less geometrical. And they wanted the designs to be enjoyed and appreciated on the ground rather than from a bird’s-eye view. They were also concerned about sustainability, particularly regarding water usage, and wanted gardens which could evolve, change over time.

Aurosylle: In this connection, they wanted less hardscape, constructed features.

Hemant: Even though we limited the hardscape to 15% in the design brief for the new gardens, many of the initial designs we received were very hardscape – the designers were simply following design patterns of gardens elsewhere – so these were filtered out. Initially, 102 registrations were received and 34 concepts were submitted. Of these, 17 made it to the final stage for detailed design submission. Ten detailed designs were submitted by designers. The technical and expert panels reduced these to the top three designs, while taking into consideration four Community panel members feedback. All ten designs were displayed in the Unity Pavilion to get feedback from the community, who were also asked to choose the lead design from the top three for the process of integration.

Aurosylle: Unlike for the Garden of the Unexpected, only one Aurovilian came forward with designs for these gardens, and this didn’t make it to the final stage. We are not sure why so few designers from Auroville participated.

Hemant: All of the three selected designers came from India, but only one had visited Auroville before. The others knew something about the project through their contacts with Auroville architects.

However, as they didn’t know the specific ethos of Auroville, initially they went about designing the gardens in the way they would normally do, that is in a very architectural manner. This is not surprising. In India there is no history of this kind of gardening, which requires a much more fluid approach, like the Japanese way of gardening which Mother appreciated so much.

So when the experts reviewed their initial designs, they commented they needed to be changed. But the biggest changes took place when the three chosen designers came to Auroville for ten days and were asked to come up with one integrated design for the four gardens.

How did the integration process go?

Hemant: To begin with, I took them on an extensive tour of Auroville, talking to everybody who had expertise in this area and other long-time Aurovilians. One of the big learnings for the chosen designers was that they realised they knew very little about plants.

Aurosylle: And about ecology in general.

Hemant: Then they spent every night here changing and integrating their designs – they agreed there should not be one lead designer – and finally they came up with something very different from any of their original conceptions.

How was it different?

Hemant: Initially two of the designs were very geometrical, while the third, most popular, design was too open, undefined. However, it provided a template for the other two. The designers say that in the final design all the important aspects of the earlier designs are still there, but now there’s a much more fluid movement from one garden to the other.

So the overall shift is away from sculptured to more people-friendly gardens?

Hemant: Yes. And while ecology was a secondary concern in those earlier Matrimandir gardens, now it’s more important.

Does this mean that some of Roger’s original guidelines for the gardens have been dropped? For example, he mentioned that the gardens will be like a jewel in a jewel box. Has that idea been abandoned?

Hemant: The basic guidelines, like the layout of the radial pathways, the width of the paths, the separation of each garden into “Petal’ and ‘Garden’ sections, and the presence of a different dominant hibiscus in ten of the twelve gardens, are still there. But I told the designers that what is most important in the design brief is the feedback the community has given on the first four gardens. Because while I don’t see any single designer being able to bring down the spirit of Life or Power into these gardens, I do see a high collective aspiration. And while we want to keep the aspiration of what Mother said, in the physical we need to manifest what the community wants at this moment.

After two years these new gardens will be reviewed by the Design Evaluation Panel, made up of community experts in landscape, engineering and Integral Yoga, chosen by the community to make all design evaluations in Matrimandir, who will also incorporate what the larger community feels about these gardens. This is understood and has been accepted by the designers.

Has the overall process received larger acceptance?

Hemant: Most people feel the process has worked well this time. Jacqueline, who collaborated with Roger for many years, has accepted the outcome, and Narad wants to actively participate in the manifestation, and there’s a consensus among everyone else involved.

How did the professional designers respond to this process?

Hemant: They enjoyed it, even though they received one or two very severe criticisms. In any case, they are used to dealing with clients who can be problematic. What was quite different for them was having to integrate their designs. Normally, once a designer is chosen they don’t have to consider other designs. But in this case the integration requirement stimulated them to come up with something even better than their individual efforts.

One of the conditions for the designers of the Garden of the Unexpected was that they would remain on site to supervise the work. Is it the same for the designers of these four gardens?

Hemant: Yes. We’re still trying to work out how this can happen. If it can’t be arranged, we will get an Aurovilian to continue the work. But then the person on the ground would be deciding how the design manifests, not the designers, because you can’t have remote authorisations.

When will the actual work begin?

Hemant: We will begin the work next month with Life and Power, which are the two smaller gardens by the Banyan tree.

Where does this leave the existing gardens? Will they also be modified in the light of the community’s wish for more ‘user-friendly’ gardens?

Aurosylle: The garden of Bliss might get a tree.

Changes have been taking place in the Garden of Existence, with an arrangement of crystals replacing the central boulder. What was the process followed here?

Hemant: The community survey told us that the central layout in this garden was not liked, so we wondered how to change it. We sent out a request for suggestions, but nobody responded. However, Michael Bonke had proposed eight years ago to put crystals in that garden and was still pushing to do it. Initially, we planned to put the crystals in one of the non-developed gardens so that people could see how they looked: only if the community liked them would they be placed in the Garden of Existence.

However, we discovered it would cost fifteen lakhs to set them up in a non-developed garden, and another ten lakhs to move them again. And some of the crystals might be damaged in the process. So we decided to put them directly in the Existence garden and if, after two years, the community decides it doesn’t like them, we will bring back the boulder (which, at present, is in the Garden of the Unexpected).

Aurosylle: It’s important to remain open to the future. Hopefully, one day we will be able to move from consciousness to consciousness and garden to garden. As Mother told Narad:

It must be a thing of great beauty – of such beauty that when men enter they will say, “Ah, this is it!” and they will experience physically and concretely the significance of each garden. In the Garden of Youth they will know Youth. In the Garden of Bliss they will know Bliss. “Then She raised Her hand, and she said, “One must know how to move from Consciousness to Consciousness.

Hemant: I very much like Roger’s statement that the gardens will grow “according to their (the Aurovilians’) state of consciousness”. I think that was the main theme we took for the whole process. It was also a reaction to what happened before when a small group worked very concentratedly on the gardens’ design and it resulted in a conflict. We found Roger’s statement that the evolution of the gardens should take place through a collective process and a much better way of approaching it.

Aurosylle: However, I see that the result of this process is not quite as good as I had hoped for. It’s fine to try to make everybody in the community happy, but everybody has an opinion and something gets lost…The most popular is not always the most beautiful.

Hemant: For the moment I think it’s okay to sacrifice something to achieve collective unity and to help complete the Matrimandir gardens (which we were told was our most important task when we and five others were appointed as executives of Matrimandir). Of course, in the end the whole process should become more intuitive.