Mar 20 2025 to Mar 20 2025 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

South India has thousands of brick dilapidated buildings, which may be erased due to neglect, laxed laws and ignorance. The author of the book Brick Architecture Craft in South India, Priya Joseph, provides ways to read these buildings as archives, embedded with rich information, offering a decolonial reading of architecture through detailed, beautiful drawings as a tool.

This method of analysing the buildings as an archive of construction, forefronts the ‘makers’ and the agency of the local craftspeople rather than an Anglo-centric gaze. Brick buildings such as the extravagantly ornamental and structurally rich Chatrams of Thanjavur, Rosary Church, Hassan and Fort School, St Andrews Kirk or even ‘Sabha’, the venue of this event in Bengaluru, are some of the many cases elaborated.

The book connects the history of brick to its many contemporary challenges and manifestations. The rich visual drawings and photographs in the book, make a case for reading building as archives and bring unknown examples of architecture to the forefront. The book is an outcome of 8 years of research, drawing and reflection about earth and architecture in South India. It is published by Routledge (London/New York 2025).

The illustrated talk is followed by a discussion with a leading architectural practitioner of Bangalore, Vijay Narnapatti, where Priya and Vijay will discuss the many intriguing elements of brick, architecture, craft and Bangalore in general. A Q&A with the audience will follow.

Speakers

Priya Joseph
Architect, Writer & Educator
Dr Priya Joseph is an architect, writer, educator. She holds a PhD in art and design. She is a professor at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art Design and Technology, Bengaluru and also heads the MDes programs there. Her research and practice for the last two decades has been on material and design, history and theory of architecture, especially focused on material-tectonics, gender-ecology-design, urbanism and using drawing as a method of not just representation but also reflection. She has taught earlier at the Faculty of Architecture- CEPT University, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland, IN:CH project.

She is the co-founder of The Living Studio Architects with Deepak Godhi which has designed numerous buildings in earth, in South India. Priya has recently won the Prestigious Jeffrey Cook Award for Exceptional Scholarship by IASTE, a consortium of the University of California for her research on Terracotta Tiles. She has written widely, including writing for Economic and Political Weekly, Domus, Traditional Dwellings and Settlement Review, and UNESCO Sahapedia among others.

Vijay Sambasivam Narnapatti
Design Principal at mayaPRAXIS
Vijay Sambasivam Narnapatti is a Design Principal at mayaPRAXIS, Bangalore. He founded mayaPRAXIS design+architecture with partner Dimple Mittal in 2001.  He received his bachelor’s degree in architecture from School of Planning and Architecture New Delhi in 1992 and a Master of Science in History and Theory of architecture from the School of Design Architecture Art and Planning at the University of Cincinnatti [USA] in 1997. He has been both teaching and practicing architecture since 2001 in Bangalore.  He has taught at both Bachelor and the Post graduate programs in architecture at RV College of Architecture as a visiting faculty since 2001.

In 2012, mayaPRAXIS was featured as one of the Practices of Consequence by the Indian Architect and Builder and one of the Emerging Practices of India by Arch Daily. His practice has won recognition for its architectural design work including the ARCASIA Award for Sustainable Design 2017, Architect of the Year 2011 for public building [21st AYA awards, JK Cement], and others from A+D, Inside outside, Architect of the Year Foundation and Indian Institute of Interior Design and The Merit List [TML] . He is also part of research and interest groups that look into design aspects in the context of Bangalore.  He has also penned articles and papers.