On Auroville 2022 to 2025

beginnings, were promoting the choice of a light and handy metal structure, upon which the decorative elements could be affixed; this option corresponded to Roger‟s approach, who considered as necessary a plasticity of materials sufficient to allow later changes; the other view rested on the Mother‟s written instructions as to the qualities required for the construction of Her temple – solidity, long lastingness, stability, harmony -; in this perspective, the study which the engineers responsible for all the calculations for the concrete structure had already made, of a geodesic armature of precast concrete beams, seemed preferable to us on site, although it would demand much more work and time for its realization; the team of workers, of which I was part at the time, had decided for it, just as it had done for the fabrication and installing of the twelve columns in the inner Room (simply because Mother had seen them), and we had then had to adjust to a rather colossal task, that of manufacturing and placing hundreds of beams laid in rows of triangles. And then, once again and with more intensity, the debate had presented itself to the entire community: all through these years past, we had all lived day and night aware of the majestic presence of this „being‟ of concrete at th e centre of the Auroville space, growing and gradually defining its volume and its grace; Matrimandir was for us all a full being, a „person‟ in terms of consciousness and presence, a friend within all of our searches; at every stage of its erection, since its appearance as a great immobile ship open to the skies, to that of its four limbs stretched to meet and join, and to its present form of a sphere open to the elements, it was like a central destiny accomplishing itself, but also the symbol of our inner home. We all knew, and awaited this moment, that this sphere still open to light and air at the trees growing all round it, would have to close like a protecting shell sheltering the site of silent, timeless concentration dedicated to the Truth-Consciousn ess, but… could we not also preserve this physical and emotional communication with the life of Auroville, with the world? Thus, some of us had dreamed of another solution: to lay great triangles of glass onto the concrete armature, which would stop rain and dust but let in light and impressions of the natural environment. Yet others, observing the remarkably puissant harmony of this geodesic sphere with its multiple facets, wished to lay on it a nobler material, simple and durable, and had thought of plates of white marble, which would each differently reflect the ambient light. And yet others were attempting to conceive of a more generic solution: to reestablish the contours of a real unified sphere by creating horizontal bands of light concrete set with thousands of tiny ceramic tiles tinted with natural oxides, from light ochre to blue and green, so as to respond at every instant to the variations of light and to offer a mystery of permanent beauty. And, of course, the model of the gilded discs remained preeminent in most consciousnesses, since such had been the official version since the beginning. However some practical problems must first be resolved, beginning with that of internal visibility within the sphere, that is, in the space between the external walls of the Chamber, held in its upper part, and its external cover. Moreover it had been found that the original model of the gilded discs presented many years ago by Roger and his team could not fit the new geometry of triangular facets and that a

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