Auroville Earth Institute

Office of the Earth Institute

The office of the Auroville Earth Institute has been built at different period of time, according our need of expansion.

The initial development of the office was the opportunity to show various types of vaults, domes, which had been traditionally built worldwide, such as: hemispherical dome on pendentives, octagonal dome, cloister dome on squinches, segmental vaults, etc.

Office of the Auroville Earth Institute

At the second stage, some research was conducted to build vaults and domes in different ways and with shapes which are not commonly seen.

This research was the opportunity to develop the free spanning technique, especially for the method with horizontal courses. Note also that one of the aims was to minimize the use of specially made templates and formworks, so as to use what was available on site: skilled labour which has been trained, regular tools and components of the building, such as window frames.

Building a segmental arch on precast concrete corbel	Series of segmental arches	Starting the pendentives of the dome
Laying a pot for an acoustic corrector	Closing the hole of an acoustic corrector	Building the segmental sphere of the dome
Segmental sphere of the dome	Laying blocks with the compass	Domes near completion
>Completing the dome	Dome on pendentives completed in 5 days by 1 mason	Segmental octagonal sphere dome completed in 4 days by 1 mason
Starting a segmental cloister dome	Laying the blocks to start a course	Laying the second block of a course
Wedging the joint of the blocks with a stone chip	Adjusting a block at the key of the arch	Completing the cloister dome
Cloister dome completed in 6 days with 4 masons	Ramming the filling of the dome for the floor	Office of the Auroville Earth Institute