The team of the Auroville Earth Institute, along with volunteers aging from 11 years to 60 years old and from 10 to 12 countries, built in Auroville the caretaker’s house of the Realization project in 8 days.

The house was precast in the Auroville Earth Institute premises in about 3-4 weeks:
•    Compressed stabilised earth blocks (CSEB) of the house were done by volunteers of the Realization project in October / November 2007
•    Precasting was done by 3-4 paid masons and a few workers from the Auroville Earth Institute in December / January 2007.

All materials were transported to the site in 3 days and the house was assembled in about 64 hours by a daily team of 16 paid workers and 10 to 15 volunteers. This house has been conceived as moveable and no cement mortar or cement concrete has been used to assemble the house. Only earth mortars and earth concretes were used to bind the hollow interlocking CSEB. This house can be dismantled with a minimum loss of materials, transported anywhere and rebuild as such. All items for the bathroom and toilet were also precast and we organised a huge construction game: a kind of Lego game for children from 11 to 60 years old… This house of 30 m2 (built up area) cost about 2.1 Lakhs Rs. (5,000 USD) including a solar system, water supply, wastewater system and all finishes.

The Realization project http://www.realization.inaims to build sustainable and affordable homes for Auroville. It wants to contribute actively to the building of Auroville as a conscious community and as a city of never ending education. The Realization project proposes one solution to answer the present housing crisis in Auroville. The construction of the caretaker’s house was the first step of the Realization project and the first phase starting in the next weeks will be the construction of 20 apartments for about thirty-five people. The future phase of the Realization project will see the development of about 170 apartments for about 450 people over a period of 3 to 5 years. We want to thank all the volunteers and workers who contributed to this challenge of building the care taker’s house. We want also to thank the Housing Service of Auroville who agreed to finance this house and the neighbours from Creativity community for their kind support.