Reception Pavilion
In order to complete the Matrimandir, three new construction projects are being undertaken: the Service Facility; the Reception Pavilion and the West Bridge.
The Matrimandir workshops and offices will be moved in different places – such as Industrial zone and Reception Pavilion – as they are all presently located within the Lake area.
The Reception Pavilion will welcome everyone; residents and visitors alike who come to the Park of Unity for contemplation.
The West Bridge will cross the Lake from the Reception Pavilion to the Park of Unity
Once upon a time, not far from the Banyan Tree, there was the Central Kitchen for all the people living and working in the centre area of Auroville, including Matrimandir. Over the years the need for the kitchen declined and the buildings were transformed into the Matrimandir offices and also a reception area for the many visitors.
On the eastern side of the Matrimandir, workshops were built and then a generator room and workers’ facilities and all the buildings required to store materials, tools and machines. All these temporary buildings are located in the future Lake area and the time has come to move them to permanent facilities.
Three locations have been chosen. The noisier activities such as the Metal Workshop and the Carpentry and Stonecutting sheds will move to a more appropriate location to the north in the Industrial zone. They will be joined by the main Stockroom, a big shed for storage of the many valuable materials accumulated over the years including wood, marble and stone and a parking area for all the big vehicles.
Other activities will be accommodated inside the Park of Unity itself either in the underground storeroom under the Garden of Youth or under the Amphitheatre, east and west, where the electrical department already lives and where there is also space for the laundry, the gardeners, the plumbers, the masons and the scaffolding team.
Temporary workers facilities will be set up near a new entrance on the south west of the Lake near the existing Solar Plant. But once the Reception Pavilion is built they will be moved there to its basement.
And the Offices too will be moving to the first floor of the Reception Pavilion as soon as it is ready
Workshops to move
Overall budget:
Rs 2 crores
$ 210,400
Due date: 01/06/2027
In future everyone visiting Matrimandir and the Park of Unity, from both inside as well as outside of Auroville, will approach the Peace Area through the Reception Pavilion.
Roger Anger has left some ideas and sketches for the future Reception Pavilion, which will be located on the outer shore of the Lake on the West axis from where a beautiful Bridge will span the Lake to the Park of Unity. This Pavilion will complete the beauty and perfection of the Peace Area.
It will be the base for the security and the guardians who look after the Peace Area day and night. There one will find comfort facilities as well as other very practical requirements.
But more importantly it is envisaged that the Reception Pavilion will provide an atmosphere that will help all those approaching Matrimandir to cast off the hustle and bustle of daily life, to prepare for outer as well as inner silence and to get into contact with their inner being.
This project is now coming into focus. The architects have been chosen, preliminary designs presented and these are being further developed before moving onto the planning process.
Bridges symbolise overcoming obstacles, making the work on the bridge over the lake a fitting expression of this project.
The Lake will create an isolating zone between the City Area and the Peace Area which can only be accessed with permission, according to The Mother.
The Bridge will cross the Lake from the Reception Pavilion to the Park of Unity on the Matrimandir’s West axis
The Bridge is envisaged as the only access to/from the City Area for all residents and visitors alike entering and leaving the Park of Unity for contemplation.
The Bridge will be mainly a pedestrian bridge but it will be able to accommodate large numbers of people at a time to correspond to the capacity of the Amphitheater, which is 5000 people as well as electric vehicles for those with mobility issues.
The Bridge will also conceal such infrastructure services as water pipes and electric cables.
The Project is still in the conceptual stage but will have to be taken up soon as the Lake will soon be excavated on the West.
An underground store room is being built underneath the Garden of Youth, to provide future storage for gardening equipment such as ride-on lawn mowers, bobcats and a small tractor/trailer.
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