On Auroville 2022 to 2025

the most sustainable and resilient association of materials, the most meaningful organization of services…? What is our experience of living in our built environment, what are the elements we find worth replicating and those we find unsuitable in the long run? What do we learn from the actual suburban development gradually encircling the territory of Auroville? What are the qualities we need our environment to express? When we say, for instance, that we must move earnestly to the next level of participation and build for 20,000 residents in a few years time, providing infrastructure for the ulterior level of those 50,000 individuals presented as the “finish line”, what are the values we expect all these newcomers to respect and practice so they can all find their respective place and activity and contribute further to the realization of the Auroville Spirit upon earth? In this perspective, not just as architects and builders and planners, but as “us”, whoever we are, can we do together a research work, honestly and diligently, so we can arrive at a shared sense of priorities? When in the 1970s we had to find some way out of the void (we had no legal existence and could not overtly function as a community), there was no chance for a research to be undertaken collaboratively with the members and affiliates of the SAS, and eventually the only possible way forward appeared to be through the involvement of the Central Government of India via an Ordinance and an Act of Parliament. Today we may have a chance to invite everyone involved, and that includes representatives of the Central Government of India, to join in this research and try and reach a clear sense of direction which will be of significance not only to us here but to contemporary India and the world as a whole. The choice of referring to the Ring of Unity was partly due to its date, in the month of May, the 29 th ; could we, (and why not, really?) take that coming 29 th of May as an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to togetherness, come what may?!!! Let go of our recriminations, our hurts, our misgivings and our doubts and rigidities and … smile and work and progress????!!!

Best wishes to all”

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