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November 01
Building Invocation and Arati
- by Tineke
Building denser areas
with row houses and apartments instead of individual mansions is the
emerging trend in the Residential Zone. Sumark (a unit under Auroville
Fund) recently finished the apartment building "Invocation
II," and is constructing additional apartments in Arati. Tineke
talks to architect and builder Rolf and project holder Francis.
Invocation is located in the
Residential Zone, just adjacent the large water tower. The building,
which has fourteen apartments, looks quite western with its common
entrances, doorbells and mailboxes with the names of the inhabitants on
them. In spring 2001 Invocation's extension, popularly called Invocation
II, was finished. Five of the six apartments are meanwhile occupied by
Aurovilians, one by a long-term guest. In Arati, Sumark is building 16
two-bedroom apartments. "They are assets of Auroville. After
completion, they will be allocated to interested Aurovilians and
Newcomers against a donation to Auroville," says Rolf. "If
someone expresses an interest during the construction phase, we will
take the suggestions about materials and colours into account, otherwise
the apartments are as they come." The second phase of Arati is
different from phase I - which consists of six split-level row houses -
due to the preference of people interested in housing in this area.
Both Rolf and Francis
believe that the trend of building individual houses with large gardens
is something of the past. The disadvantage of a big individual house is
the cost of maintenance, safety, and the time and energy you spend on
keeping it up. "Like in my case: when I go out, I have to put
someone in," says Francis. "But I would advise families with
children to live in a house with a garden," says Rolf.
The advantage of living in
an apartment is that you do not need much outside help. Life can be much
simpler. But for Aurovilians it is quite a change from living
individualistically. Though caring for your neighbours is a must, in an
apartment building anonymity can be secured by simply removing your
nameplate from the mailbox.
Water problems
The main challenge for the
development of the Residential Zone is making people conscious of their
water usage. Rolf and Francis see the availability of water as the next
big problem. Recently a new well was dug in Courage. At the time of
drilling it gave 20,000 litres per hour. But recently the output dropped
to 4000 litres due to the two consecutive monsoon failures that affected
the water table in Auroville and the region. The new well near Kailash
is also not expected to be a big provider. The present elephant water
tank near Prayathna supplies water to the communities of Arati,
Invocation, Surrender, Prarthna, Prayathna, Sailam and a to two new
communities under construction, Creativity and the Line of Force. While
the average water use per person in Europe is approx. 100 litres per
day, here in the tropics in Auroville some people use at least eight
times as much, gardens being the main guzzlers. Unless another good
water source in the near future is found, or the Aurovilians start
limiting their water usage consciously, the development in the city area
will have to come to a halt.
Some communities are
considering building underground rainwater catchment tanks, which would
be filled during the monsoons. But according to Rolf and Francis, those
tanks are not only expensive to build, but they also would not be able
to provide water for a long enough period of time. A proper water
assessment study of the whole Auroville region is being made, and its
results are eagerly expected. Unless we all become extremely aware of
how we use our water, we might be in for big trouble very soon. Do we
really want to turn our lush and green Auroville back into a desert?
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