RVS GIA MANTRA LIVE PROJECT

" Gia Mantra Global Village is an initiative started by an Architect Donald Seugvera from Mumbai where he envisions in creating and building a community overlooking the Arunachala Mountain in Tiruvannamalai.

The global village aims to break barriers and create a community that is not differentiated by tags of class, caste, race, creed, religion or nationality. The way of life, spirituality and sustainable living determines the main objectives of the global village.

" In the advent of this holistic community, they envision building with natural materials such as bamboo and earth. The community building workshops that create these natural earth buildings are the first step in this holistic communitarian approach.

" The Natural Building Workshop was to get hands on training with the construction with earth and bamboo. Single dwelling spaces that were designed were executed in different sites. The students worked on five sites in total where they got a holistic understanding of the building a built form. They got a hands on training in Pit foundation, random rubble foundation, knotting of bamboo, bamboo and thatch roofing, building walls with CSEB and rammed earth, pointing and finishing a CSEB wall, cement and oxide flooring and experimented with alternate building material ferrocement.

Ar. donald Sequeira

A well established architect who has practiced in Mumbai for decades and has experience in the field of architecture ranges from producing good functional designs to management of site etc. He is well versed in high rise buildings.

He also has experience in producing BBC documentaries from around the World and has travelled across the globe for the same gathering precious experience along the way. His spiritual journey has brought him to Thirvanamalai and he has been an active part of GIA MANTRA GLOBAL VILLAGE.

A sound engineer from background, she has found her passion in simple living of sounth india. She conducts workshops and sessions on pottery, meditation etc.

A environmental consultant who worked in Swiss Energies where she worked in creating and ideating new ways of energy systems that are sustainable.