Technology transfer
Spiti, August 2009
The Auroville Earth Institute was invited by Spiti Project to conduct a training course on masonry with CSEB in August 2009 at Mane in Spiti Valley, HP, India and to build 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 the 23rd of August 2009. Ayyappan was in Spiti for the third time 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 in 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 of 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.
