born 1942, in Germany, studied architecture in Münster and Aachen. In 1967 he came to India as a technical volunteer from Dienst in Übersee and taught in Osmania University, Hyderabad.

He is living and working in Auroville, an international city for Human Unity in South India, since 1970. His first 10 years were spent in the local villages, learning and developing new ways of building with traditional architecture in mud, which resulted in a book, Rural India – village houses in rammed earth. In these endeavours he was supported by Deutsche Entwicklungsdienst.
Most of his later work in Auroville experiments with locally available materials, techniques such as vaults and domes in bricks, tile roofs with precast concrete rafters (without the use of tropical timber), designing spaces with a minimal indoor-outdoor divide. Nature and all what is natural to it forms a focus in his works and the extensive landscaping using indigenous plants adds to the totality of the experience.

Apart from a practice which is largely influenced by sensitivity to ecology in a tropical climate, he also spends a lot of his time in archeological digs (“reverse architecture), painting and archery.

link: http//www.auroville.org/the city/architecture/mona.htm