THE MATRIMANDIR AREA’S DEVELOPMENT – APPROACHING THE GOAL!
The Matrimandir Area’s Development- Approaching The Goal.pdf
The beginning clearing work on the land for the future Reception Pavilion Project
The Matrimandir, the heart and soul of Auroville, is a labor of love, built with the sustained and intensely devoted work of Aurovilians and so many friends – and is a source of inspiration too for the thousands of visitors to Auroville. Since the start of the Acres for Auroville campaign, a major objective has been raising funds to acquire the still-missing land that encircles the Matrimandir and its gardens. The plot shown in the above photo is one example of A4A’s vital contribution!
The task now before the Matrimandir Team is to complete the rest of what The Mother had envisioned – all the twelve gardens and the construction of the Lake. The target date for completion is February 21st 2028 – The Mother’s 150 birth anniversary.
And the task for A4A is to continue to bring in the needed resources. Lands, not yet owned by Auroville, have to be acquired on the Matrimandir’s western front to allow for the full development of the Reception Pavilion project – and this is where support to Acres for Auroville is so essential!
Here we are happy to share how the Matrimandir Team is moving on many fronts towards the goal of completion in the next three years:
Current news from the Matrimandir Team:
After the opening of the Garden of Wealth on The Mother’s birthday, February 21st, work began on the adjacent Garden of Utility (see the Designer’s vision below).
After laying out the garden design in full scale on the ground, the water bodies were excavated and now we are engaged with installing the waterproofing liner of the Garden of Utility’s several pools.
Meanwhile, over in the Bliss Garden, the modification for the central circular plaza of the garden is actively underway. On April 4th the set of 5 white, marble clad bowls was set into operation with fine curtains of water falling elegantly from the brass rims of each bowl. The interiors of these bowls have been lined with hundreds of golden tiles, tiles left over from the fabrication of the golden discs which cover the outer surface of Matrimandir.
The remaining three gardens – Youth, Harmony and Perfection – are coming into focus as we gradually approach our target completion date of February 21st 2028.
The Matrimandir Lake reached a critical project goal on 30th November 2025 as the 10-meter deep Lake Section One reached its full capacity after three years of Monsoon rain. By the time the October monsoon rains came, Lake Section One was ready to receive its final input of harvested rainwater.
Unfortunately, Auroville was hit by full force and tremendous rainfall brought by cyclone Fengal on this November day, and because of receiving 60 cm of rain in 24 hours, the concrete block end wall was overpowered and slid open, releasing the stored water into the already excavated Lake Section Two. Work on the Lake proceeds today with the removal of the 4000 concrete blocks of the lake end wall which was breached by cyclone Fengal.
In parallel to this work of excavation, work has been underway to shift the excavated earth to its final location in Auroville’s Northern Green Belt, where land has been designated for this purpose.
The direction to build this large hill was given by the Mother in her early conversations on Auroville, where she described the digging of the Matrimandir Lake and then using the soil to create this hill. She even directed that fir trees should planted on this Hill!
As the huge piles of earth which now lie just to the north of the Matrimandir Gardens are removed and transported to the Hill location in the Green Belt, work will then start on the excavation of the Lake body in this segment, just to the North of the Matrimandir Gardens. Excavation of the Lake on the Western side of Matrimandir is, for the moment, waiting for the shifting electrical and communication infrastructures and a road out of the Lake area. For which work is underway.
Excavation of the Lake on the northeastern side of the Matrimandir Gardens waits for us to relocate all our old workshops and support facilities, which lie inside the Lake area. The facilities have been built up over the last 50 years, and today they are still very active in supporting the ongoing work in all the Matrimandir departments. These functions will be shifted into the new “Service Facility”, now in the final design stage (see below), which will be built just beyond the northeast Lake border.
On the outer edge of the lake, on the West, another building known as the Reception Pavilion is to be constructed. The land being cleared as shown in the top photo of this report is the site of this future Pavilion.
This building, envisioned by Auroville’s architect Roger Anger some 55 years ago, will be the single point of entry for all who come to visit the Matrimandir and its gardens. A bridge over the Lake, 100 meters long, will link this Pavilion to the garden’s oval. Several designs for this Pavilion have been offered by different architects, and work is underway to move towards the final choice of design.
In addition to all of this, there is the upgrading of the Matrimandir’s heliostat which brings the Sunray into the Inner Chamber of Matrimandir, and the development of the system to activate the 4 golden doors which are in the pillars of Matrimandir, and which will slide up and down between the top steps of the entrance.
For these last two projects, Matrimandir is working with the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai to reach the best solutions.
Working on many fronts simultaneously, we are approaching the goal!
It is inspiring, as always, to participate in the materialization of the physical
embodiment of the Soul of Auroville.
(From The Matrimandir Team’s April report)
Photo by Arnab
