Auroville as part of its regional development program undertakes several activities in partnership with local village bodies like the women’s self help groups, youth clubs, adult literacy program, vocational and livelihood skills training and rural health centres. Ilangarkal School is the hub for some of these programs with class rooms / workshop spaces / crafts centre / library / dining +kitchen / admin / computer training and 2 dormitories’ for residential students.

The campus is designed a “Mandala” around a stepped pond cum amphitheatre. The compressed earth blocks used for the buildings are made from the excavation of this pond and roofs of the buildings are turfs that collect rain water and channel it to this pond. During the monsoon the pond is a brimming water body framed by the buildings and in the summer it becomes the outdoor multipurpose learning and gathering space during the evening and night adult literacy program.

The earth buildings clustered tightly together also re-imagines the central courts of the Tamil Nadu temple complexes with its multiple pavilions of worship within a walled compound.