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Consecration of the north/south Americas Site
The event brought together guests such as
Auroville's chief architect Roger Anger, Auroville Foundation
chairman Kireet Joshi, Mr. N. Balabaskar the Secretary, U.S. Consul
General Bernard Alter from Chennai, and some hundred well wishers to
plant trees and dance, sing and pledge their energy to go forward
with the first steps towards creating the Americas Area. We also
read American poetry and had a spontaneous serenade from a group of
architects from Chile. It was another step forward. It was a
privilege to be there.
The U.S. Pavilion - full of promise
In the course of time, many Aurovilians from
USA as well as members of Auroville International USA have
brainstormed on how to express the soul of the United States through
a future U.S. Pavilion in Auroville's International Zone. Here are
just a few examples:
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Present the indigenous spirit, the
connection to the land, and the homeless spirit, in the sense of
a wandering people, the nomads, exiles, refugees--can all be
expressed through art, music, poetry, prose.
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Auroville as a whole stands for the unity
of mankind: let freedom and individuality ring come through the
individual pavilions.
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Something... that recognises the
tremendous cultural diversity of the United States.
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What has happened in America of real
significance has been the result of a certain dynamic action,
often magnanimous, for the sake of the collective good, or the
general welfare and progress of the community.
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If one is to search for the soul of
something, look to its strengths, the goodness and greatness
that are latent in it, or that it has tried to express and may
yet express.
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One such strength is that America always
looks to the future, to a new creation and a new beginning. This
has been most strongly felt in physical, scientific innovation
in the last century, but surely its roots lie deeper, in a
pointing toward the coming transformation of the species. A
second is freedom, the freedom of the individual to develop,
free from cultural, religious, or community conventions.
Individual freedom is a sine qua non of the spiritual life; the
individual is always the one who breaks free of encrusted
convention and leads the way. That this freedom was not
universal in America's history is no mark against the essential
movement. A third strength of America, which has been somewhat
eclipsed in political life in the last decade, is the spirit of
the sunlit path: a sunny optimism that doesn't let failures and
obstacles depress the spirit. It is the sense that life is full
of promise.
In search of architects..
Members of AVI USA and the Americas Pavilion
group in Auroville are busy looking at several well-known and
respected architects whose work would be appropriate for Auroville
and inspiring enough to give them the green light to create the U.S.
Pavilion.
University Of Washington sends students
In the 2001/02 winter season, 37 students and
4 faculty members from the University of Washington will live and
work in Auroville. They will complete the design and construction of
the U.S. Pavilion's first building: a dormitory based on sustainable
architectural and environmental design principles. (It may be of
interest to note here that both students and faculty are donating
their labour and paying their own costs for this venture, amounting
to a donation worth over US $ 200.000!)
In the coming years these ideas may take
shape, - we hope to share them with you on these pages.
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