Itinerary

hall on the first floor of a new building located in the industrial zone, elected for its acoustics and dimensions. The topic is a burning one: it is the matter of the final covering and appearance of the shell of Matrimandir.

It is an ongoing battle.

In order to situate it, here is a condensed historical. To begin, one must remember that Roger A., the “chief architect of Auroville”, had gone away from Auroville – during about ten tears – since the burst of conflict with the SAS and that the entire construction of the structure of the Matrimandir had rested on the diligence, the precision, the discipline and the managing and organizing capacities of Piero C.; but once the whole of the main concrete structure was built, the question arose before us all once more, of the shell itself, its components and its final appearance. Yet these winds of polemics had already blown several times before – as during the construction of the dodecagonal inner room: what were to be its exact measurements from wall to wall, from their inner or outer surface or from their mid-section, or what was to be the material of the translucent globe in its centre, or were these twelve columns really necessary since they had no structural function, such were the elements on which those winds had thrived and now they had returned with renewed vigour. And in fact, the matter had already engaged everybody several years before: how were we to realize the actual armature of the shell , joining the four vertical arcs: Roger‟s faithful and partisans, some of whom had previously worked with him in the early years, were valiantly advocating the choice of a metallic structure, relatively light and flexible, onto which the decorative elements could be anchored; this option corresponded with Roger‟s

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