Bringing a Vision to Life: Dharmalaya Institute
Reflecting on the birth of Dharmalaya Institute (Earthville’s Himalayan sister school), from the early design conversations between Earthville founder Mark Moore and award-winning eco-architect Didi Contractor, and the epic volunteer-driven adventure to bring Didi’s inspiring design for Dharmalaya’s first building to life.
Didi Contractor and Mark Moore in 2013
Mark Moore and Didi Contractor first met as friends in the 1990s, but it was in 2008 that they began discussing Mark’s vision for the Dharmalaya Institute and Didi generously volunteered to design the institute’s main building and to help train and guide Dharmalaya’s team of artisans. They had several in-depth conversations over a period of weeks. In these probing conversations, Didi sought to gain deep understanding of the kinds of activities that would be taking place at the institute to be built.
Didi was particularly interested in what those experiences would feel like, so that she could design a space that supported the programmes not only physically but also emotionally and spiritually.
Those conversations culminated in a visit Mark made to Didi at her home, in which he shared with Didi a utilitarian conceptual sketch just to give her a more practical sense of space requirements and to serve as a visual aid for conversation.
After Didi had heard all she needed in order to understand the vision for the Institute, she sent Mark home and, as Didi tells the story, she dropped the thoughts from her mind, to allow it to rest with a blank canvas, and went to bed.
During the night, the design for the building began to take shape in Didi’s dreams, and she awoke before dawn to begin sketching what she had seen. Before 6:00am, she messaged Mark saying, “I’ve got it! Come see!”
Mark rushed back to Didi’s house to meet her and was ecstatic to see her sketches, awestruck by the depth of Didi’s sensitivity that allowed her to connect so deeply with the intentions that Mark and Dharmalaya’s other cofounders had for the Institute.
Mark was particularly inspired by the way Didi had envisioned the movement of light through the building during different phases of the day, and how that would affect the feeling in the space.
Didi’s first sketch of Dharmalaya Institute’s main building
Construction begins
We broke ground in 2010, under Didi’s watchful eye, and with the . After months of discussion (both practical and philosophical) and multiple site visits to observe the place and the flows of nature here, Didi designed our main building to meet the Institute’s needs while also demonstrating possibilities for sensitive modernization of the local vernacular architecture, preserving the best of the tradition while also making a few carefully considered modifications to address its shortcomings, including seismic reinforcement, larger windows and skylights for more natural light, and other such improvements.
From the start, we put our commitment to experiential education into practice by making the entire construction process an opportunity for learning and vocational training. We hired local villagers to join the construction team and introduced them to new techniques, expanding their skill sets and thereby enhancing their employability. We welcomed volunteers to learn Didi’s methods of natural construction by working alongside skilled artisans trained by Didi. And this led to the establishment of the Internship in Vernacular Eco-Architecture, which Didi and Mark developed and ran together.
This was a perfect beginning to the ever-evolving work-in-progress that is Dharmalaya Institute’s eco-campus.
Mark Moore describes this process with Didi Contractor in the 2017 documentary “Marrying the Earth to the Building.”