Maps

The January 2025 issue of Auroville Today focused on the aftermath of Cyclone Fengal, which breached the Lego block dam separating sections 1 and 2 of the Matrimandir Lake.

On 6th January, 2012, Michael Bonke, along with Toine van Megen and Harald Kraft, made a presentation to the Auroville community about Auroville’s future energy and drinking water needs [published in AVToday # 271, February 2012].

A group of resource persons, helped by research assistants and web developers have developed an on-line repository of documents pertaining to Auroville’s Urban Planning and Development.

Recently, as there was widespread concern about what was happening with the Matrimandir lake excavation, a task force was created at a General Meeting to prepare a design brief that would frame the aesthetic, environmental, functional and technical parameters to undertake the preparation of an alternative concept design.

In February, the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture hosted a double exhibition: Bhavyo’s paintings of the icy peaks of the Himalayan Tosh valley were displayed in its main room, while a number of urban design studies of his twin sister Bhavya were hung around the courtyard.

On May 27th, Bharat Nivas inaugurated Ekattva Maarg [meaning Discovery Path], a Unity Path to discover Auroville. The pathway comprises the loop that starts at the Visitors Centre and passes through Bharat Nivas, Unity Pavilion, Savitri Bhavan, the Matrimandir Viewing point and ends at the Visitors Centre.

Since a couple of years, Auroville Consulting has been looking for scalable solutions for climate action. One of the ones they have developed is a carbon converter which anybody can use to calculate their transport emissions, with an added option to plant trees and offset the same.

The steady increase in private car ownership in Auroville, as well as the hike in outside cars and autos circulating daily within the community, gives rise to the question: Is Auroville falling well behind ‘best practice’ examples of transport that are thriving in other parts of the world?

Lack of available housing threatens the growth of Auroville. The reasons for this are lack of planning, bureaucratization, ‘not in my backyard’ attitudes, over-dependence on government grants and bad economic policies.

The International Zone Coordination Team shared the International Zone’s latest developments and future plans in an open community meeting in January.

An important meeting in terms of planning for the larger bioregion took place on 11th September in Pondicherry. Hosted by Citizen’s Action Network, PondyCAN and the Puducherry Planning Authority, with participation of civil society from all the sub-regions, the consultation meeting was also addressed by Lt.

Survey markings in the Greenbelt installed by a consultant working for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) revealed that plans were afoot to build a four-lane National Highway through the Auroville Green Belt for a length of 3.5 kilometers, crossing the Forecomers, Pitchandikulam and Aurogreen areas.

An innovative process to design a new garden close to the Matrimandir is underway. What is it trying to achieve? What does it involve?

The idea of Sanjana began in 2011, shortly after Gundolf had moved into one of the new apartments he had designed in the Surrender community.

Luis Feduchi is a Spanish architect and town planner. He was Professor of Urban Design at the Berlin Technical University, Germany before moving back to Spain to work as Dean of Architecture of the University of Madrid.