Platform for Architectural Transfers in the Indian Ocean rim
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UPCOMING
CONVERSATION

Tools of Building Practice
Thursday 9 July 2026, 5.00 pm IST

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Respondent: Vibhuti Sachdev
(GITAM School of Architecture)


Classical architectural knowledge system
ideation to manifestation


Neena Zutshi
(Columbia University)


This talk examines the tools of architectural production through the lens of the Samrāṅgaṇasūtradhāra, examining a premodern design system in which textual instruction and embodied craft function as primary instruments of building. In response to drawing and model-centric paradigms, the treatise articulates a mode of ideation that is fundamentally three-dimensional, generated through codified textual procedures and possibly, realised through full-scale operations on site. Evidence of direct carving and marking on stone suggests that the building itself becomes a design surface, collapsing distinctions between representation and construction. By situating these practices within the relationships between architect, patron, and construction team, the talk interprets tools not merely as technical devices but as mediators of authority, knowledge, and labour. The paucity of evidence of portable representational tools such as drawings suggests a distributed model of authorship and demonstrates how classical knowledge systems enacted through collaborative processes that integrated textual authority with embodied craft practices and vernacular knowledge. This is reinforced with suggestions from the Samrāṅgaṇasūtradhāra - “allow the individual creativity of the mason to decide (certain aspects) on site”. The selective adoption of tools reflects specific socio-cultural and material conditions embedded within building processes. The Samrāṅgaṇasūtradhāra offers a critical framework to rethink architectural tools as architecturally empowered and culturally situated systems that configure both the conceptualisation and production of built form.



Behind and beyond the Roorkee Treatise of Civil Engineering

Pedro Guedes
(Queensland University)



The Roorkee Treatise was launched in 1866 by Major Julius George Medley, Principal of Thomason Civil Engineering College, Agra, aimed “chiefly for the use of students…[a]… comprehensive Treatise on the whole subject, principally with reference to Indian practice.” The Treatise appeared in numerous revised and updated editions, culminating in many volumes on distinct subjects, continuing in print even after 1947. It had become the trusted textbook of up-to-date knowledge across all fields of officially recognised building in South Asia.

This presentation will track precursors to the Treatise in European, British and Indian publications and the impact of teaching at the School of Military Engineering at Chatham that moulded the minds of engineers posted to India. These seconded military officers controlled enormous volumes of civil construction through the PWD and beyond. The Treatise’s focus on ‘Indian practice’ filtered through reductive, techno-scientific thinking, downplayed the value of accumulated tacit and customary knowledge embodied in common traditional building practices irreducible to formulas, universal solutions and precise calculation. The Treatise helped normalise building methods subjecting them to verifiable standards easily regulated by legislation. Perhaps much of value was lost in processes of inculcation – hopefully providing subjects for discussion at this and future PATIO session.  



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PATIO Conversation No. 03 | Anthony Wako & Dhaval Chauhan
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PATIO Conversations No. 01 | Chetan Sahasrabudhe & Ashmita Gupta
 






PATIO
CONVERSATIONS

PATIO Conversations are open to all; we aim to meet once a month, and scholars get an opportunity to share their work in progress. These presentations may be on a topic of their choice, which may relate to one or more of PATIO’s thematic umbrellas, or even critically reconsider and reconfigure our definition of particular themes. Participants may include independent scholars, Master's students, or aspiring PhD students as well as postdoctoral researchers who can contribute as speakers or choose to be an active part of the audience. Each such conversation foregrounds two scholars presenting their work for 20 minutes, followed by feedback from relevant respondents invited by the PATIO team in relation to the topic, and finally opening the discussion out to the larger audience. As such, PATIO Conversations offers a platform for critical dialogue while both disseminating recently completed work and providing mentorship to aspirant researchers, including potential PhD candidates. These sessions provide researchers with the resources to further their work related to the state of the field by involving active experts and engaging with current bodies of relevant work, published or otherwise. 
PATIO Conversations is directed by Saptarshi Sanyal and Sarah Melsens with the help of Thematic directors and Coordinators.