Solar Kitchen, Auroville, India

Completed in December 1997, The Solar Kitchen (La Cuisine Solaire) was specially designed for demonstrating the use of solar thermal energy for cooking meals. It was intended to be a collective kitchen for the community. Construction works began in 1994. The enormous solar bowl installed on the roof of the building (15 m in diameter), and the diesel fired boiler provide steam for cooking meals on sunny days. The rays of the sun concentrate on the cylindrical boiler. The generated energy is enough to cook two meals for 1000 people. One of the designers of the bowl is John Harper who built the prototype of the solar bowl in the early 1980s. The kitchen provides diversity of cuisines (as well as a vegetarian food) and supplies them to schools and people of the nearest communities. The architects of the building are Suhasini Ayer Guigan and Anita Gaur. The building features several waterproofing mechanisms, a spiral staircase and a system of wastewater management. The project cost 12, 5 million rupees (about USD 230 000). Gross floor area of the project is 1700 square meters.

By Astghik Atabekyan, www.building.am