Sponsored by the non-profit organization Volontariat Pondicherry, this orphanage project was carried out with the intention of testing the feasibility of a building technique first applied by the well-known Iranian-American Nader Khalili, and subsequently developed by Ray Meeker. Described in an old Persian manuscript, this technique involves erecting a structure with bricks of sun-dried mud as the only construction material. When finished, in order to make it wetproof and to give it an adequate degree of mechanical resistance, the structure is subjected to a temperature of 960 ºC for three or four days, using a mixture of carbon powder and clay instead of wood, a material which is scarce in the area. The void of the house doubles as a hearth, with an oven for baking a good part of the ceramic needed to complete the building: bricks, tiles, pipes, pots, washbasins, and lavatories. In this way, the building is no longer just a consumer of materials, but an actual producer thereof.