Sharanam Centre for Rural Development
by Jateen Lad
Client SARVAM, a unit of Sri Aurobindo Society
Award RIBA International Awards for Excellence 2024
‘The Sharanam Centre is an exemplar of the architect leading the project from concept to completion. Inspiring the local community to achieve world class innovation in design, sustainability and quality of execution.’
Sharanam means ‘refuge’ and is located amongst the surrounding rural villages of Villupuram district, Tamil Nadu in a region in the east of India opposite the Bay of Bengal. The building and the landscaping has converted a scarred and desolate site into a vibrant and inclusive community centre and gardens, both for the local villages and a wider area.
It has a multi-purpose hall, meeting spaces, offices, newspaper studio, community radio station, kitchen and amphitheatre. All of which have been integrated with nature. The result is a building of exceptional beauty, functionality and tranquillity.
The project has a modest budget and, with the full commitment of the community as contractors, the architect employed and trained local workers in new construction skills. This enabled them to build to a design that introduced innovative techniques in terms of structure and sustainability, and that also followed carefully studied traditional Tamil buildings in this part of India.
The centre was built with locally sourced materials such as red soil, which was manually pressed into over two hundred thousand blocks supporting the thin self-supporting vaults. These vaults, as a central spine provide cover from the intense heat in summer.
External and internal areas playfully linked with changes in floor levels, as well as interwoven ponds as water features, offer evaporative cooling. An amphitheatre at one end adds drama to the visual delight of the procession of vaults as they cover the linear core.
Materials were obtained from local recycling and the whole project was completed with zero waste. Such sustainability credentials for the building are enhanced further by the new skills introduced to the community, and that can be distributed to other future building projects.
As a green building project it has achieved exceptionally low use of energy targets and natural resources. Combined with a low carbon footprint Sharanam is featured as a case study in the UN Environment Programme’s “State of Play of Green Buildings in India.”
The architect’s vision, passion and determination has enabled a poor community to achieve a building of outstanding quality and dignity.
The project represents a world class exemplar for the future for low cost, innovative and green community buildings. Built by training local unskilled workers and upgrading skilled workers will enable future projects to achieve these new techniques and to be applied with precision and discipline.
Location: Tamil Nadu, India
Date of completion: 02/02/2016
Cost: £251,010.00
Gross internal area: 1776 m²
Technical Advisor: CSEB manufacture and the structural design of the vaults: Auroville Earth Institute
Electrical Consultant and Subcontractor: Asha Electrical
Surface Rainwater Harvesting: Geotechnical Solutions
Waste Water Treatment Plant Design: Auroville Centre for Scientific Research
Underfloor Cooling Design: Pan Asia Pvt Ltd
