In Spring 2015, I had the opportunity to teach a course, “Vernacular Architecture”, at the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) in Mumbai, India. This course was further developed and updated with the help of Prof. Shawhin Roudbari in Spring 2018. Please find below the updated syllabus for the course.

This seminar offers an exploration of the field of architecture and the built environment by tracing developments and debates concerning the meaning and history of traditions in architecture and in traditional architecture. What do we mean by traditional architecture? What is the relationship between traditional architecture and modern architecture? How is this relationship played out in the realm of building materials? These questions will be addressed by engaging both foundational and new scholarship on the meanings of traditions in the built environment and the implications of the same. From here onward, the course will move on to explore how meanings in traditions are expressed through/by building materials particularly concrete. Here, we will focus on the history and political economy of cement-a key binder in concrete, in the Indian context. The final part of this course will focus on the process of writing and organizing a research paper and delivering an effective research presentation.