Dr. Priya Joseph, an architect, writer, and educator, recently discussed the role of building materials in understanding urban history at an illustrated talk at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) in Bengaluru. Her new book, Brick Architecture Craft in Nineteenth-Century South India: Reading Buildings as Archives, explores how bricks can serve as archives that reveal the history, culture, and social dynamics of past cities.

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• Dr. Priya Joseph presented her book on how building materials, especially bricks, can offer insights into historical cities.
• The talk, titled Reading the City Through its Material, emphasized how bricks serve as archives of the past, revealing the history of architecture, craft, and society.
• Joseph’s book focuses on the 19th century, exploring how the colonial and indigenous architectural practices intertwined during this period.
• The use of bricks dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization, where bricks with vibrant colors and animal footprints were found at Mohenjo-Daro.
• Joseph stresses that bricks contain embedded information about past times, people, and practices, offering a window into the past.
• The book connects the history of brick-making to decoloniality, highlighting how reading buildings as archives decolonizes our understanding of cities.
• Joseph emphasizes that bricks in the 19th century were a point of intersection between colonial agencies, missionaries, and indigenous practices.
• The variability in brick sizes and details can reveal important historical data, such as the type of fuel used in their creation.
• The discussion at IIHS was followed by a conversation with Prathijna Poonacha Kodira about how cities and their architecture hold stories of their time.
• Joseph advocates for the recognition of the agency of those who crafted these materials, shifting the focus to the creators behind the bricks.