Construction to Combat Climate Change

This has been an energizing period at the Auroville Language Lab building, and we’re thrilled to share what’s been accomplished! Our biggest milestone is the completion of the three tall outlet shafts for our passive cooling system. Each one rises nearly 30 feet, made of sturdy metal and polycarbonate, and required almost three weeks of intense work. They are now fully in place, and they bring us dramatically closer to proving that large public buildings can stay cool without a single air-conditioner, even as temperatures keep rising! We now have a total of 6 outlet shafts ready.

We also carried out important structural repairs to keep the building strong and weather-resistant. The roof has been reinforced, the gutters consolidated, and the entire drainage line prepared for the monsoon. Security barriers were added in the children’s room, and the fencing outside was strengthened with solid granite pillars and fencing to keep wild pigs out. These improvements protect the building so it can continue standing as a living example of ecological construction in action!

Not only is our building ecological and a great example of construction to combat climate change, many people have reported feeling calm and centred inside. We have gathered some comments from students and other visitors to the building. Do have a look. These comments beg the question : what effects do buildings have on their users. Are they simply functional? Or, can buildings have a deeper function? Integrating the ancient Indian science of Vaastu Shastra, with a modern system of electromagnetic compliance, as well as probiotics usage, enables our building to show the way for the future of architecture.

Our Annual Report and a new film about the Lab are now complete, helping us share our message more widely: climate change does not have to push the world toward more and more air-conditioning. Our building shows another way! Even unfinished, it has stayed comfortable at 42 degrees Celsius, something almost unimaginable in today’s climate. Every step forward strengthens this message and helps us demonstrate that sustainable, low-energy buildings are possible, practical, and urgently needed.

Thank you for supporting a project that aims to shift how the world thinks about heat, health, and energy. We’re moving ahead with determination and excitement, and we cannot wait to show you what comes next!

• ALL Annual Report (PDF)
  

Dear friends,

To follow up last week’s report:

1. BITS DESIGN UNIVERSITY STUDENT BLOGS
   
   I had mentioned that the students from BITS Design University in Mumbai were required to write blogs on their experience of their “Community Project” or volunteering experience.  Here are the links to what each of them wrote about their experience and insights gained from their three weeks spent with us at the Auroville Language Lab.
   
   Riddhi: https://medium.com/@rsonekar12/listening-beyond-words-786751ac4bfd
   
   Srividhya: https://medium.com/@srividhyas1312/built-from-the-ground-up-dc79d686978d
   
   Aarushi: https://medium.com/@aarushipranavi29/higher-frequencies-3cafc923f50c
   
   Kayna: https://medium.com/@addesaikayna/between-light-language-and-learning-a-walkthrough-81c9d2efb292
   
   
   
2. THE BUILDING DATA MONITORING PROJECT
   
   There have been two studies already on the temperature and humidity performance data of our building.  One was done in 2019 with students from a German company called Transolar.  (Linked in earlier reports). Another was done concomitantly, and its results were published in Elsevier’s Building and Environment magazine:
   
   Doctor-Pingel, M., Vardhan, V., Manu, S., Brager, G., & Rawal, R. (2019). A study of indoor thermal parameters for naturally ventilated occupied buildings in the warm-humid climate of southern India. Building and Environment. Elsevier.
   
   https://adk.elsevierpure.com/files/61400314/AMPS_Proceedings_9_Living_and_Sustainability_1_1_.pdf
   
   It’s been six years since then, so we wanted to do another study to see what the data throws up now.
   
   We borrowed 11 Hobo Data Loggers from the Centre for Scientific Research (CSR), Auroville, and revived our own 6 Elitech sensors, which we had acquired in 2019.  A young volunteer, Ambar Banerjee, from Calcutta, helped Mano to set these up. We followed the same placement map as before.  Mano trained Ambar in how to download the data (since our building is free of wireless signal, this has to be done manually), and we have started monitoring again. Ramesh from our team also worked on the visual presentation of the data and even wrote an app that has many possibilities for data analysis. Attached is the first visual comparing the surface temperature outside our mediatheque and inside.
   

   What this shows is a comparison between the Surface temperature outside the building on the outside wall of the Mediatheque, and the surface temperature on the wall inside the Mediatheque.  The orange line shows the temperature of the outside wall.

   What you can see is that at night the temperature outside falls, and then it rises to a peak when the sunlight hitting it is at a peak.  So you see these enormous fluctuations in the temperature. Whereas, on the inside of the building, the blue line shows a constant temperature.

   The inside temperature shows a constant temperature staying between 29 and 30 degrees centigrade, whereas the outside surface temperature is going up to 38, 39, and almost 40 degrees! (Yes, 30 is high, but remember that we have not finished our cooling towers, and many of our inlet air shafts and the majority of our outlet shafts. It’s actually a very good result given that fact.
   
   

3. CALL FOR SUPPORT
   

   It would be great to get some support specifically for the building monitoring project as we go along. It’s time-consuming on top of our daily work and needs a dedicated person to do it.

   We also need support for another person focused on the building book knowledge-share. One person has been dedicated to this, but meeting these additional costs through our regular activities, is really very tough.

   It would also be great to have an admin person who could help with documentation, report writing, fundraising, and project management.

   So please do consider making another donation to the project on GlobalGiving’s Bonus Day, July 16th (9am Eastern US time to midnight). (Do make sure to find the equivalent time in your time zone). All donations made on that day will be eligible for Incentive Funds from GlobalGiving, so that you can extend your impact.

   In case it is at all possible to make a recurring donation, that would be fabulous. Please spread our link and the word to your friends, family, colleagues etc.
   
   https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/construction-to-combat-climate-change/

   We would be so grateful and would put it to excellent use, and this time we promise to write more often!

   11th July 2025

   
   
   

Links:

• The Building Page on our Website
• Video on our building (28 mins)