Many of the plants growing naturally all around us have healing properties. As part of the Earth Day program of events we were invited to Sapney Farm to learn about using medicinal plants. Listen to Elumalai describe the properties of plants from brahmi to hibiscus. What natural preparations can we use for fever, wounds or insect bites? How can we plan and care for an herbal garden? Then hear Sara, long-term volunteer working on her Permaculture diploma, describe some of the Permaculture principles being practiced at Sapney Farm. Read more

As we all know housing is a big problem at the moment in Auroville. But with this new housing project there is light at the end of the tunnel. This project will provide 20 flats for single, couples and families starting from Rs 13 lakhs. There is also provision for modular office spaces. In this phase they will incorporate a new and innovative building technology called Light Steel Frame (LSF) for the structure. This technology is known for faster construction and its cost-effectiveness. Read more

On Wednesday 1st of August at 4pm at Conference Room in Town Hall will be a public presentation of Mahalakshmi park - proposal from Alexandre, Camille Hortense, Lucie(students of ENSP) under supervision of Alain/Road Service and Marie/Matrimandir with the contribution of Kalia /New Creation in July 2012. The audit party of CAG will commence the Certification Audit of Auroville Foundation accounts for the year 2011-12 from 30-07-2012. All the Trusts/ Units are requested to keep the entire accounts records ready for the CAG audit. Read more

L'eau semble bien être au cœur de l'actualité d'Auroville. Gilles du CSR (Auroville Centre for Scientific Research) nous a déjà présenté une conférence sur un futur plan d'organisation de l'eau dans Auroville jeudi 21 juin. Gilles nous parle à nouveau de cette ressource vitale dans une interview. Pour pallier au manque d'eau imminent, il souhaite mettre en place des infrastructures qui allient différentes ressources (irrigation, eaux de pluie, désalinisation par exemple). Mais de tels changements ne sont pas faciles à mettre en place... Read more

Martin Mosko is a briefly visiting landscape architect, monk and author, currently participating in the Matri Mandir Garden Design Team. At his presentation on 22 Feb 2012 at Town Hall, Martin explored the underlying principles reflected in Japanese Garden Styles that express the essence of harmony and contemplative mind. He presented images of some spell-binding gardens that he has worked on and showed how gardens can be a manifestation of and also an inspiration for balance and harmony of the mind. Read more

Tim Wrey launched his book 'Footsteps through the Salad' yesterday at Town Hall. The book is a collection of well-researched and interesting articles about the wildlife of Auroville and some of the natural phenomenon associated with the area. It will be available in the bookshops in Auroville and copies will be provided to schools for their libraries. Tim took the opportunity to thank SAIIER, the publisher, and also the people who helped him with material, encouragement, suggestions and feedback. Read more

Under the Matrimandir Banyan Tree John Harper speaks of how it looks here. Juan, professional tree pruner called in to cut the badly broken limb of the Banyan, cyclone damage. Juan offers a class in safe handling of chainsaws. All service connections in Auroville and surrounding villages without power since the cyclone struck. A total of 42 distribution transformers affected. Funding priorities: to restore Electricity, Water, Security, Access, and Shelter. Pavilion of Tibetan Culture: Lighting of Lamps and Meditation Tuesday Tuesday 7 pm. Read more

An interview with Aryadeep about the saving and protecting Auroville land identity. To create good situations for all the stake holders, to secure the whole hearted cooperation of all and for protecting the lands for the appropriate and unified development of Auroville together with the appropriate, beautiful and ideal development of the surrounding population and localities. The COLLAP newsletter it is published by Auroville Land Fund to give more information about the land topic. Download the latest 2 issue here: COLAAP 48 , COLAAP 49

Successful interactions between Ethiopian students from Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building, Construction and City Development (EiABC) with Aurovillians during the AVI meeting lead also to an interesting interview with Brook Teklehaimanot, who holds the Chair of Architecture and Design, and is the author of the model of the Africa House - the Pavilion of African Culture. As he told us one doesn't really plan or draw a city, city belong to the community and plans in reality change. More important is what happen with the built spaces. Read more

Taking into account the regional context, the current choice that has supported the development of Auroville up till now (that is to tap 100% of the water from the aquifers), can no longer guarantee the water-security nor expected future developments. The preliminary study shows that Auroville must diversify the sources of water supply. Among the possible resources, rain water and its management in the form of surface water seems to be one of the most promising. Click here to download the pdf of the presentation. Read more

Adrien, Elsa and Sophie, interms from the National School of Landscaping of Versailles in France have been working with Tow Development Council / L'Avenir d'Auroville, Road Service and Marie since June on a design for the Mahalakshmi Park. On thursday 18th of August in Conference Room in Town Hall we had a chance to see the presentation of their work. Fresh and interesting concept they presented was warmly welcomed by the audience, and presentation itself was followed by lively discussion. Posters are on display at Town Hall . Read more

Featured is Krishna of Solitude Farm with the concept of replacing lawns and ornamental landscapes with gardens and orchards to provide food, as the question of our food security cannot be left to big farms alone nor planning groups to decide. Auroville's 2nd Triathlon takes place 11 September, get ready! There will be two categories: contact mike AT auroville.org.in or sourya.sercomanens AT gmail.co Why play Bridge? It stimulates both the sides of the brain. Introduction to Bridge: amaresh.deshpande AT gmail.com Read more

Manu discusses the site plan and progress of Transit Lounge with Eric. The Transit Longue has been specifically designed for Aurovillians and Newcomers as a housing solution in order to ease the pressure of shifting houses every one or two years and to help integrate themeselves in Auroville. The intention is to provide freedom and choice to a community of smaller groups that can co-exist creatively and peacefully. The prototypes of individual designs of housing units proposed by various builders was also discussed. Read more

In this talk the landscape architects Achva and David Stein from New York that were invited by the Auroville planning section L'Avenir to help to prepare a plan for the development of the Green Belt are presenting some of their works to explain their approaches to landscape planning. They have been involved in large scale projects all over the world including India, have won many awards with their work and have now spend more than a month in Auroville to study the local situation. Read more

The TDC discussed the need to develop nodal areas in each zone of the international zone and consolidating growth while creating an urban feeling. The group also spoke about starting new projects. A proposal has been made for the new Cite Universitaire. The chairman, Mr. Doshi, elaborated on the need for a urban design, sustainability, knowledge transfer, centralizing and decentralizing, diversity in unity with regard to the usage of space in the Universitaire while avoiding duplication of common facilities. Read more

L'avenir d'Auroville/ TDC it will hold its first TDC (Town Development Council) meeting with TDC/L'avenir d'Auroville chairman Mr Doshi this weekend . Members of Avenir Advisory Council Mr Dattatri and Toine are also invited. In today's news we feature interview with Renu about it. In this official meeting and the same time practical workshop they will discous about relationship with Tamil Nadu government, zoning regulations for Tamil Nadu and Auroville's Master plan in relation to it, next steps in land protection of the Master Plan.... Read more

As a kick-off for the presentation of the Auroville Sustainable Agriculture Plan (ASAP), within the next few months, Auroville Radio presents a series of eleven interviews concerning the foods we eat in Auroville. What were the ideas in the old days of Auroville regarding agriculture and sustainable foods? Which agricultural developments did Auroville been through since the first Aurovillians started to change the dusty plains into the forest it is today? How is the present situation in Auroville's greenbelt and what is it capable of? And, perhaps most important, what are the challenges for the future?... Read more

As a kick-off for the presentation of the Auroville Sustainable Agriculture Plan (ASAP), within the next few months, Auroville Radio presents a series of eleven interviews concerning the foods we eat in Auroville. What were the ideas in the old days of Auroville regarding agriculture and sustainable foods? Which agricultural developments did Auroville been through since the first Aurovillians started to change the dusty plains into the forest it is today? How is the present situation in Auroville's greenbelt and what is it capable of? And, perhaps most important, what are the challenges for the future?... Read more

As a kick-off for the presentation of the Auroville Sustainable Agriculture Plan (ASAP), within the next few months, Auroville Radio presents a series of eleven interviews concerning the foods we eat in Auroville. What were the ideas in the old days of Auroville regarding agriculture and sustainable foods? Which agricultural developments did Auroville been through since the first Aurovilians started to change the dusty plains into the forest it is today? How is the present situation in Auroville's greenbelt and what is it capable of? And, perhaps most important, what are the challenges for the future?... Read more

Restoring the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF) to the society is our priority, said Paul Blanchflower, who founded the Auroville Botanical Garden. At a presentation during the Green Practices workshop, he said the aim should be towards sustainability as we are an energy-driven society. Joking about a philosophical angle to his talk, Paul emphasized that nothing on this planet can exist without a relationship to humans, as we are the dominant force. He discussed more aspects to landscaping and the other projects they are currently working on.

Following on from the discussion series facilitated by the Auroville Council and Resident's Assemble Service earlier this year, the Council has invited all community members to a General Meeting to discuss the the benches and pathways beneath the Matrimandir banyan tree and how we make decisions as a community in Auroville. The meeting was held in SAWCHU on the 3rd of September. The discussion was vibrant and in some parts the emotional side came up. Anyway the interaction was conductive and some sort of results came up at the end. Jesse chaired the meeting. Here the 2 hours and 14 minutes recording of the full meeting.

Inspired by project of building African pavilion with name Africa House in the International Zone African students who were here in March at the time of the event African Night, suggested summer work on the site. Students came from different cities here in India, where they study, and those are from different African countries. Most of them expressed positive feelings about Auroville, and of course about International Zone itself, and the work will continue. In June they cleaned the big piece of land of shrubs and bushes. We talked with few about their feelings, observations and aspirations. Read more

About 150 Aurovilians gathered at the Tibetan Pavilion on Saturday the 15th to be part of to the General Meeting held by the RAS and facilitated by Jessie. The actual Executives of the Matrimandir explained their vision of the work in progress around the Unity Garden with a Power-Point presentation. And this was followed by an open discussion between the members of the community in order to find a consensus on the right path to follow. Read more

The process of renewing L’avenir d’Auroville (the Urban planning service  of Auroville) is going on since sometime. It is the occasion for Auroville residents to find a new momentum toward the construction of the City. Amongst all the actions which are being conducted for this purpose, a Study group has worked toward the necessary evolution of the structure and functioning of this service. Their proposal was presented to the Residents during this meeting to start collect feedback from them and get it ratified. Here the recording of the meeting held yesterday in Town Hall.

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On Thursday 21st of January in the Unity Pavilion was meeting to formalized and widened the group of people who would like to support the work  in the pavilion for Africa named Africa House. Before the formal inauguration of Auroville Kailas was appointed by the Mother to be in charge of the International Zone. In the part of introduction Kailas told us that interesting part of the history, as she call it, about the cultural pavilions of all nations. After the Mother left her body Kailas proposed to UNESCO what cultural pavilions intend to serve. As for Africa, the real plan of the pavilion is here already, made by young Ethiopian architect who was volunteering in Auroville.

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A community meeting took place with the Governing Board on the first of January 2010 at the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture. Ms. Ameeta Mehra, Shri B.V. Doshi, Shri Ajoy Bagchi and Ms. Aster Patel invited the residents of Auroville to an open interaction about Planning and Development Organisation for Auroville. A report of the community process initiated on the renewal of the management team of  L'Avenir d'Auroville was also presented... You can listen to the second and the third part in READ MORE.Read more

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The Residents’ Assembly Service and L’Avenir d’Auroville have met in the last weeks to explore a common approach towards the renewal process. L’Avenir d’Auroville members have committed to produce a self appraisal of their performance during their term in the coming days. This is the recording of the third meeting. It was held at the Tibetan Pavillion on December 21, 2009. Click here to dowload the first part.In READ MORE the second part.

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L'Avenir d'Auroville organised a General Information Meeting on Thursday, the 10th of December at 5pm in the Town Hall. The International Zone group, the Visitor's Centre team and peple from Bharat Nivas presented and explained the recently approved lay-out about the International Zone and specific projects of Bharat Nivas and the Visitor's Centre. Here is the recording of this General Information Meeting.

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Le falciatrici scorciano l'erba mentre Andrea, ancora con voce tremolante, si muove dall'area della Pace verso i laboratori nei quali si continua a preparare pezzi per il Matrimandir. Tra sibili di macchine al lavoro e cinguettii di uccellini, la passeggiata porta il microfono verso nord, al cumulo di terra di risulta dalla fondazioni della struttura principale, trasportata a mano da centinaia di uomoni 40 anni or sono ed ora sventrata da scavatrici meccaniche: la collinetta scomparira' a breve. Un robusto basamento su cui si poggiava la macchina che ha tritato tutte le roccie servite per il cemento armato per la costruzione, e' ormai abbandonata a lato dei giardini ed ora va incontro all'oblio.

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“One thing is very important: the 12 gardens around the Matrimandir...This is gonna be a  great work when the vision comes to manifest this gardens.” disait Narad. Après le Matrimandir, voici venu le temps des jardins. Une nouvelle équipe de paysagistes c'est formée il y a trois ans, dont Marie que nous avons interviewée lors d'une ballade dans les jardins du Matrimandir. Elle nous raconte ses débuts avec les travailleurs tamouls mais surtout sa rencontre avec Maurizio et Marc et la réalisation des jardins Sat (Existence) Chit (Conscience) Ananda (Félicité). Pour plus d'information vous pouvez lire l'article paru dans AV Today ici ou bien

sûr en écoutant l'interview ci-après. Pour télécharger l'interview cliquez . Read more

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