The growing administrative needs of Auroville made it too small to build the main Town Hall as envisaged by the chief architect, Roger Anger, so the current requirements were accommodated in smaller buildings called Town Hall Annex. Such a move was meant to ensure that these buildings would herald the realisation of the future city and the ‘real’ Town Hall. The challenge was how to create an urban feeling with only the three buildings that the programme involved: the Auroville Centre for Urban Research, including offices for the working committee, housing and land management, as well as Auroville’s planning; a multimedia centre; and a cafeteria and related social infrastructure.
The aim was to define the language of the interconnecting elements such that the buildings would have a compact, urban character. The offices were thus interspersed with service and public circulation areas. The central public space between the two buildings overlooking the cafeteria is the heart of the complex. Walkways, bridges and ramps provide shaded links between buildings. The buildings are mainly constructed in reinforced concrete and brick masonry to establish a sense of permanence and stability suited to the programme.
Various elements demonstrate the material’s capacity for large-span roofs and cantilevers, as a celebration of engineering achievements: the large overhangs containing the walkways along the future lake promenade, the large cantilever over the cafeteria roof supported by only two pillars, and various ramps and bridges also built as long cantilevers. The complex also includes green infrastructure technologies with 100 per cent of the waste water from toilets being treated and re-used. Roof water is harvested and treated to drinking standards and supplied in the cafeteria. Spaces are planned for adequate daytime lighting through the central skylight using room sizing.
