S H A R A N A M
...encompassing not only the ecological, climatic, technological and environmental aspects but also cultural and socio - economic dimensions of development
S H A R A N A M - AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO ARCHITECTURE
S H A R A N A M is a Centre for Rural Transformation,
spread across 5 acres on the western outskirts of Pondicherry, South India and is serving as the headquarters of Sri Aurobindo Society's rural development programme - SARVAM, active in the villages of western Tamil Nadu.
It has been designed to act as a hub for development programmes across India.
It is a unique, modern, highly engineered and optimised institutional campus
built entirely out of unfired earth from foundation to roof,
to a precision of 1mm.
The primary building material is earth which came from the very site
on which the buildings stand.
It encompasses not only the ecological, climatic, technological
and environmental aspects
but also the cultural and socio-economic dimensions of development.
The goal of the project was not to build the building
but to make the act of building a means of development.
Hence S H A R A N A M Phase I – the first project of Aurospace –
has been built without a contractor,
where both architects,
Trupti Doshi from Mumbai and Jateen Lad from London,
themselves worked on the building site and
trained more than 450 local villagers in high level building skills
to build an inspiring campus
FOR THEM, WITH THEM.
It has been chosen by the
United Nations Environment Programme
as a model for Sustainable Development in India
and has been widely appreciated in India and across Europe.
Envisioning S H A R A N A M
Creating S H A R A N A M
The S H A R A N A M Story
This is a story.
A real life story. Of a building. And its builders. And the people for whom it is built.
A story that can be expressed in 3 simple Gujarati words :
“Shunya mathi Sarjan”
which means Creation from Nothing.
With hands alone, any detail is possible.
Experiencing S H A R A N A M
From the SAS Archives
Sri Aurobindo Society published an article on
S H A R A N A M as "An Integral Approach to Sustainability" in their Management e-journal, The Fourth Dimension Inc.
The SARVAM Trust, an Integral Village Development Program, published an article "SHARANAM - Rural Development Center" on their website.