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.
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.
