Awards

Coffee Ideas, a unit that was established in 2008 with the vision to spread knowledge and foster a community around Indian specialty coffee, won a number of awards at the 2025 Global Coffee Awards Origin Competition held in Houston, Texas in October.

In the News in Brief section of the May issue of Auroville Today it was mentioned under “Awards for Auroville architects” that Suhasini Laxman Iyer had won the Indian Institute of Architects IIA National Award 2022 in the category Residential Projects for the Humanscapes Habitat buildings.

Elle, the Indian edition of the worldwide lifestyle magazine of French origin called Elle, has awarded the ELLE Sustainability Award 2024 to Aurovilian Uma Prajapati for her work in the field of sustainability in the last 20 years.

In March 2024 it was announced that Suhasini Laxman Iyer had won the Indian Institute of Architects IIA National Awards 2022 in the category Residential Projects for the Humanscapes Habitat buildings.

On the occasion of the 86th birth anniversary of the late Dr G Nammalvar, who was an Indian green crusader, agricultural scientist, environmental activist and organic farming expert, Aurovilian Bernard Declercq was presented with the Vanagam Award for Lifetime Achievement in honour of his consistent efforts, along with those of his wife Deepika, to reforest the barren land of Auroville’s Pebble Garden.

Three Auroville architects received awards in the Indian Institute of Architects awards for excellence in architecture 2022. Mona Doctor-Pingel won in the categories ‘Mercantile Retail category for Cottage Showroom’ and ‘Women Architects to the forefront’; Ganesh Bala won in the ‘Adaptive reuse and conservation category’ for an Auromodѐle House; and Suhasini Ayer received a commendation in the ‘Residential’ category for Humanscapes.

Morning Star is a unit of the Health and Healing Trust, made up of midwives and doulas who support pregnancy, childbirth breastfeeding and provide women’s wellness gynecological care in Auroville.

Satprem set up and is deeply involved with the Auroville Earth Institute (AVEI), which has become one of the world’s foremost centres for excellence in earthen architecture, and a leader in the research, development, promotion and transfer of earth-based building technologies.

This interview with Anupama Kundoo is the third article in the series ‘city perspectives’. Anupama Kundoo graduated from Sir J.J. College of Architecture, Mumbai in 1989 and received her doctoral degree from TU Berlin in 2008.

Shri Balkrishna Doshi, the eminent architect and ex-member of the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation, received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2022, one of the world’s highest honours for architecture.

Earthling Koushalya's new Tamil language short film En Udambu (My Body) has been making waves at various screenings in Auroville and Pondicherry.

The Handle Climate Change Film Festival 2020 in Shenzhen, China, awarded Aurovilian Christoph Pohl the Gold Award for his film Ever Slow Green, about Auroville’s forests.

Suhasini has won the Green Architecture Award organised by J. K. Cement Limited for architects from eleven countries. It was awarded for the Humanscapes Habitat youth housing project. [see AVToday # 340 of November 2017].

Henk (Hendrik van Putten) of Petite Ferme left his body on February 16th at the Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, due to an asthma induced lung complication that flared up after his recent return from Holland.

Dr. Aster Patel was awarded the Auro Ratna Award of the Overman Foundation on November 25, 2018, in a ceremony in the Hall of Harmony, Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondicherry.

Helping healing through humour, laughter and love.

On March 7, 2018, architect Balkrishna V. Doshi, former Auroville Governing Board member and Chairman of the Auroville Town Development Council (TDC) between 2009 - 2016, was announced as the Pritzker Prize Laureate, 2018.

On International Women’s Day, SHARAN founder and Aurovilian Dr. Nandita Shah received the Nari Shakti Puraskar 2016 from the President of India.

The Auroville Earth Institute (AVEI) managed by Satprem (founder), Lara, and Iyappan is internationally known as a centre for excellence in earthen architecture.

In the third edition of the NDTV Design & Architecture Awards 2015, Auroville architects received two awards and one nomination. In the section ‘House Award: Climatic Zone (Warm & Humid)’, architect Fabian Ostner of White Ant Studio won an award for his “A House in Auroville”, while architect Ganesh Bala from Studio One won a nomination for his ‘Petite Ferme House’.

The Unity Pavilion recently hosted a new photographic exhibition by Ireno entitled ‘Water Being’. The exhibition, which was partly funded by Stichting de Zaaier, displayed work from an ongoing project to document aquatic-bodywork at Quiet Healing Centre.