Spiti, August 2009
The Auroville Earth Institute was invited in August by Spiti Project to conduct a training course on masonry with CSEB at Mane in Spiti Valley, HP, India and to build at the same time a clinic. T. Ayyappan, technician and trainer from the Auroville Earth Institute went there and trained 4 masons and 12 labourers from the 10th to 23rd August 2009. Ayyappan was for the third time in Spiti to transfer the technology to this area.
This clinic of 57.4 m2 was designed by Ayyappan with the disaster resistant features developed by the Auroville Earth Institute. The building comprises the treatment room, storeroom for medicines and a care taker’s room. The foundations with random rubble masonry were prepared in advance by Jeet, who was trained the previous years. The raw construction till the roof ring beam was done in 2 weeks, under the training and supervision of Ayyappan, including the precasting of the composite lintels. The roof will be done later on by the local masons with the traditional way: steel beam covered with branches, plastic sheet and 6” of earth.
The Auroville Earth Institute has been involved with the development of Spiti Valley since 2004. It was first at Nako for the restoration of the 12th century Buddhist temple, and to conduct the first training course on production of CSEB. Another training course was conducted in summer 2006 to train another team on block making at Mane village. After that, as the demand was rising for this material, it was necessary to bring another press in 2007, and to train another team to fulfill the increasing demand. Ayyappan took charge of these works and trained people in 2007 at Tabo and in 2008 at Kaza.
This clinic of 57.4 m2 was designed by Ayyappan with the disaster resistant features developed by the Auroville Earth Institute. The building comprises the treatment room, storeroom for medicines and a care taker’s room. The foundations with random rubble masonry were prepared in advance by Jeet, who was trained the previous years. The raw construction till the roof ring beam was done in 2 weeks, under the training and supervision of Ayyappan, including the precasting of the composite lintels. The roof will be done later on by the local masons with the traditional way: steel beam covered with branches, plastic sheet and 6” of earth.
The Auroville Earth Institute has been involved with the development of Spiti Valley since 2004. It was first at Nako for the restoration of the 12th century Buddhist temple, and to conduct the first training course on production of CSEB. Another training course was conducted in summer 2006 to train another team on block making at Mane village. After that, as the demand was rising for this material, it was necessary to bring another press in 2007, and to train another team to fulfill the increasing demand. Ayyappan took charge of these works and trained people in 2007 at Tabo and in 2008 at Kaza.
 Random rubble masonry done before Ayyappan arrived |  Preparing the steel bars for the foundation beam |  Casting the foundation ring beam |
 Local transport of the blocks |  Precasting the composite lintels |  Foundation ring beam completed |
 Starting the walls |  Laying blocks and details of the vertical bars |  Sill ring beam ready for casting |
 Casting the sill ring beam |  Adjusting a composite lintel |  Laying a composite lintel |
 Roof ring beam ready to casting |  Jeet who was trained the years before for block making |  Group photo of the team |
