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Mumbai.
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Over 21 million people live here.
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Each year, the figure increases
by hundreds of thousands.
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The city\'s government is barely capable
of meeting the challenge of providing
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housing for all its citizens.
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Growing up in the megacity had a big impact
on the architect Anupama Kundoo.
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Chaos and the daily struggle for survival
of millions of Indians,
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environmental pollution and heavy smog,
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have all worsened due to Mumbai\'s
rampant growth over the past decades.
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Uncontrolled building activity produces
enormous amounts of CO2 emissions
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in a country which
is particularly hard hit by climate change.
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Kundoo is deeply concerned
by this vicious circle.
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Anupama Kundoo is one
of the most famous architects in India.
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She teaches in Berlin,
New York and Australia.
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She tries to tackle the huge problems
in her country with small solutions.
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Like alternative building materials.
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We accompany her
to her workplace in Auroville,
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a city in the south of India,
that was designed from scratch in 1968,
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planned as an experiment in every respect.
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What\'s the best way
to live and work together,
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united by a single spiritual vision?
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Its symbol, shining from afar,
is Matrimandir, the mother temple.
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A place of prayer and meditation,
not dedicated to a specific religion.
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The golden sphere
is the centre of Auroville\'s master plan,
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resembling a galaxy
and leaving a lot of space for experiments.
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In Auroville, everything is shared.
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Healthcare, education and income
are open to everyone and evenly distributed.
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The city\'s buildings are owned
by the public Auroville Foundation.
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The citizens are not owners.
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They bring life to the city,
take responsibility for it,
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and produce new ideas.
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Auroville has attracted many architects,
who wanted to help shape this city.
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Like Anupama Kundoo,
who has been working here since 1990.
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She has designed many key buildings,
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including the town hall, the youth hostel,
and this residential complex.
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60 people live in this complex.
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Its name says it all: \"Creativity\".
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Anupama Kundoo
lives on the outskirts of Auroville.
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Here, she has experimented with
various construction methods for years.
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The architect calls her own house
\"Wall House\".
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Among other materials,
it has been made out of achakal bricks.
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They are thinner and lighter
than normal bricks,
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meaning their production
requires less energy.
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For the high walls,
the architect used ferrocement,
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a particularly solid construction material
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which she has produced
in a resource-efficient manner.
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The terracotta roofing doesn\'t need
additional support from wood or steel
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and has been made by local potters.
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27 years ago I learned
the art of flame pottery in Auroville.
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Ceramic pottery.
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I would like to see more young people
learning this trade.
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That\'s the only way
we can preserve and improve this art form.
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But the younger generation
is not interested in this art form
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and doesn\'t see its advantages.
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But if young people learned this profession,
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it would have great value in the future.
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The bricks here are made by hand.
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The roots of Indian pottery
go back a very long way.
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Wherever the soil is rich in clay,
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you will see piles of brick,
towering several metres.
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These are huge kilns
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made of the very material
they are designed to bake.
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In the end, the bricks inside the kiln
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are more durable and stronger
than the outer bricks.
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But all bricks will be used.
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Used skilfully, the strong bricks
will support the weaker ones.
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After all the bricks have been baked
and removed, the kiln also disappears,
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leaving behind a field.
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If you build houses for people who want
and need them, then they will last forever.
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Auroville is a town with its own heartbeat
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and still lags behind the vision
of its founders.
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But the people that have settled here,
many coming from Europe,
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didn\'t come here to fulfil a plan.
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Rather, they came to fulfil a dream
of achieving a balance between work and life.
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The dream of having time, of testing
themselves and trying something new.
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In the past few years,
Auroville has been booming.
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But it\'s still not enough to achieve
the population growth goal.
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50,000 people should live here one day,
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according to the vision of 1968.
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So far, it is home to just under 3,000.
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The government is now pressing
for progress with its showcase project.
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The urban planners
are faced with the task
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of realising the plans
made over 20 years ago:
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building a lake around
the golden sphere, Matrimandir.
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It is a project of staggering proportions.
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The outdated plans
of the water supply system
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are causing Anupama Kundoo and her team
quite a headache.
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Water supply is one challenge,
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their own aspirations
are an even bigger one.
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Everything built here
should serve as a model for other cities.
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This can lead to cumbersome
and lengthy discussions among the planners.
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After all, decisions here are collective
and not based on competition.
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Achieving this
also involves small-scale research.
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At the Earth Institute,
architects experiment with soil
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as the building material of the future.
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In order to make the material more robust,
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they add polystyrene or wood chips.
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How can the material
be made weather-resistant?
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How much weight can it bear?
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Not all materials
are completely renewable
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and infinitely available
like soil, bamboo or clay.
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And not everyone has the privilege
of doing without steel and concrete,
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even if they damage the climate.
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This is why Anupama Kundoo
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is looking for ways
to use these materials sparingly.
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Ferrocement is cost-effective.
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And it\'s weightless, too.
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The ideal thickness of ferrocement
is about 2.5 centimetres.
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So ferrocement is pretty thin.
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You don\'t need many raw materials to make it.
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And it\'s pretty strong.
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Even though it\'s only this thin,
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it\'s quite strong.
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Paper can be folded into countless forms.
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And ferrocement can take
the shape of almost any paper form.
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Ferrocement can thus be used
to build countless variations of buildings.
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15 years ago,
Anupama Kundoo created a prototype.
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First, she made a model of folded paper
that looked like an origami artwork.
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Then she built a true-to-scale version
made of cardboard.
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And that was the template
for a steel construction,
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which was then turned into ferrocement.
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This all took just a few days
and the result was earthquake-resistant.
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That\'s how it all started.
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Producing ferrocement is incredibly easy.
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Pepping up the substance with pigment
will yield colourful variations.
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Anupama Kundoo
plans to continue enhancing production.
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In future, bamboo
or other sustainable materials
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may replace the steel structures.
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The architect calls this building
\"Fulfil Home\".
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It\'s made entirely of ferrocement.
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The individual elements
can be arranged in various forms.
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Anyone can build their own home
with very simple tools and materials.
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Maybe the future is versatility.
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Both in terms of materials and mindset.
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In Auroville,
everything is in a state of flux,
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in a state of transition.
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Improvisation is allowed,
experimentation is encouraged.
