CURRENT PROJECTS
INCUBATED UNDER YOUTHLINK
The Hive:
YouthLink's Central Hub
The vision of the Hive is to construct a space for the youth, and by the youth, in Auroville. All young adults from Auroville and its bioregion were invited to participate in designing this space through a series of workshops. The project’s success depends on youth participation, and so does its management – ideally targeting skilled youth in their 20s to take charge over the architecture, contracting, project holding, and later the utility and maintenance of the space as well.
The project includes a multi-functional hall for educational activities, an information resource center, an open-plan office space for start-ups, a kitchen, housing for visiting youth and caretaker facilities...all with a strong emphasis on sustainable design.
The Hive project was envisioned in June 2015, by YouthLink’s core team who wrote a proposal for Auroville’s 50th Anniversary (2018). The project received a GOI grant for its first phase, of Rs.1.24crore, however due to conflict within the community and a land allocation which was too small, YouthLink turned down the funds. YouthLink is now in process of identifying another piece of land for the project and raising funds for its re-design and construction.
Joy of Impermanence:
YouthLink's Community Incubator
The idea for starting a community incubator was visioned during the first Ecovillage Design Education course in 2016. The idea was to create a number of principles and guidelines for young adults to initiate creative community building projects in Auroville.
Joy of Impermanence (JOI) is a spirit and ideal based on the Auroville vision. JOI hopes to build a sense of trust and abundance in simplicity for Auroville. It will ideally provide a space to experiment on self sufficiency, closed loop system, low technology, post monetary system and collective intelligence. JOI would become a platform to provide and protect space in Auroville to create impermanent communities until more permanent structure would be ready to be started.
Five Missions to Serve Auroville
Preserving the Lands of Auroville from any kind of damages or use which could prevent the project of Auroville to achieve its goal.
Deepening the Relations with the Locals by establishing true contacts and exchanges with the villages and sharing the outcome of the experiments with them.
Enriching the Land by bringing positive energy, life, nature, plantations and activities to unused land, and managing to keep water there.
Stimulating Creativity by using impermanence as a space for research and experiments with fast developments.
Showcasing Technologies building techniques and research solutions from Auroville and around the world, as well as ancient wisdom. Each development of the community will be an opportunity for research and sharing with the broader community through workshops.
Five Inner Principles
Impermanence: As a spiritual concept and way of life, including living in temporary experimental buildings, on a land for 5-7 years.
Community Spirit: As a way of functioning in order to enhance a true sense of community and experiment the most collaborative and fulfilling ways of managing a community.
Self Sufficiency: As a way to sustain ourselves in terms of basic needs, by using what we can produce and benefit from the resources the researches of Auroville, while supporting and promoting them, as well as developing low technologies to achieve this aim.
Sustainability: As an approach of reducing our impact on our environment by developing closed loop systems, waste management and conscious use of resources.
Do It Yourself: As a discipline to involve the members of the community in each development of the place and to prefer the use of exchange and sharing instead of money for workforce.
The First Community: Anitya
The first community under the JOI umbrella has been named Anitya, meaning 'impermanence' in Sanskrit. The team currently has seven core members, who have been working on the design of the project and collective consciousness of their team since 2017. The team has found land in the Residential Zone of Aurovile and has started construction since early 2018.
Anitya Core Members:
Andres Acosta
Eugenie Dumont
Ion Condei
Michael Dieter Salvador Marco Manger
Mira Tonioni & son Kavi
Serena Aurora
The project also plans to build space to accommodate up to 30 people in total to experience community life. The project will also host and train those who want to take an apprenticeship in community building.