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Consecration of the north/south Americas Site
The event brought together guests such
as Auroville's chief architect Roger Anger, Auroville Foundation
chairman Kireet Joshi, Mr. N. Balabaskar the Secretary,
U.S. Consul General Bernard Alter from Chennai, and some
hundred well wishers to plant trees and dance, sing and
pledge their energy to go forward with the first steps towards
creating the Americas Area. We also read American poetry
and had a spontaneous serenade from a group of architects
from Chile. It was another step forward. It was a privilege
to be there.
The U.S. Pavilion - full of promise
In the course of time, many Aurovilians
from USA as well as members of Auroville International USA
have brainstormed on how to express the soul of the United
States through a future U.S. Pavilion in Auroville's International
Zone. Here are just a few examples:
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Present the indigenous spirit, the
connection to the land, and the homeless spirit, in
the sense of a wandering people, the nomads, exiles,
refugees--can all be expressed through art, music, poetry,
prose.
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Auroville as a whole stands for
the unity of mankind: let freedom and individuality
ring come through the individual pavilions.
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Something... that recognises the
tremendous cultural diversity of the United States.
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What has happened in America of
real significance has been the result of a certain dynamic
action, often magnanimous, for the sake of the collective
good, or the general welfare and progress of the community.
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If one is to search for the soul
of something, look to its strengths, the goodness and
greatness that are latent in it, or that it has tried
to express and may yet express.
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One such strength is that America
always looks to the future, to a new creation and a
new beginning. This has been most strongly felt in physical,
scientific innovation in the last century, but surely
its roots lie deeper, in a pointing toward the coming
transformation of the species. A second is freedom,
the freedom of the individual to develop, free from
cultural, religious, or community conventions. Individual
freedom is a sine qua non of the spiritual life; the
individual is always the one who breaks free of encrusted
convention and leads the way. That this freedom was
not universal in America's history is no mark against
the essential movement. A third strength of America,
which has been somewhat eclipsed in political life in
the last decade, is the spirit of the sunlit path: a
sunny optimism that doesn't let failures and obstacles
depress the spirit. It is the sense that life is full
of promise.
In search of architects..
Members of AVI USA and the Americas
Pavilion group in Auroville are busy looking at several
well-known and respected architects whose work would be
appropriate for Auroville and inspiring enough to give them
the green light to create the U.S. Pavilion.
University Of Washington sends students
In the 2001/02 winter season, 37 students
and 4 faculty members from the University of Washington
will live and work in Auroville. They will complete the
design and construction of the U.S. Pavilion's first building:
a dormitory based on sustainable architectural and environmental
design principles. (It may be of interest to note here that
both students and faculty are donating their labour and
paying their own costs for this venture, amounting to a
donation worth over US $ 200.000!)
In the coming years these ideas
may take shape, - we hope to share them with you on these
pages.
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