Auroville Earth Institute. India
Sara Rojo: Project leader

2010

 

“For eleven millennia, humanity demonstrated an amazing ability to build with raw earth, from simple residences to palaces and even entire cities. Today, in highly diverse contexts and areas, this building material is still the most widely used since more than a third of the world’s population lives in habitats built with rammed earth, adobe blocks, wattle and daub, cob or compressed blocks. Modest or monumental, these architectures are present in 190 countries. They reflect a quality of everyday life and technical innovations that closely combine knowledge and creativity, art and virtuosity.” Manifesto for the right to building with raw earth

 

The Auroville Earth Institute is researching, developing, promoting and transferring earth-based technologies, which are cost and energy effective. These technologies are disseminated through training courses, seminars, workshops, manuals and documents. The Institute is also offering various services, and provides consultancy within and outside India.

 

One of the aims of the Auroville Earth Institute is to give people the possibility to create and build for themselves their own habitat, while using earth techniques.

 

The Auroville Earth Institute is today the representative for Asia of the UNESCO Chair “Earthen Architecture, Constructive Cultures and Sustainable Development”. This Chair aims to accelerate the dissemination of scientific and technical know-how on earthen architecture amongst the higher education institutions, in the following three domains: environment and heritage, human settlements, and economy and production.