Asha Sumra

Doctoral Guest Researcher 

Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies
June 2024–August 2024
 
Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark
 
Title of current research project: "Itineraries of Residue: Building Culture through Mechanical Clay Tiles(1841–)"
Asha Sumra
© Asha Sumra

Academic Profile

From 1865 the Basel Mission began industrial production of terracotta roof tiles in South India, an initiation that would connect evangelical and industrial ambitions through the medium of clay and impact practices of construction across the Indian Ocean. Using the method of itineraries and an interpretation of the Vedas’ conception of the remainder, this project investigates how the residue of the tile industries speaks of building culture and attempts to build culture as subversive practices. In examining processes across oceans, ecologies and cultures, the work foregrounds the in-between as an active field of relationships and movement as a means of knowledge-making, positioning the leftover as both a source of knowledge and a potential inspiration for future cycles.

since 2021
PhD in Architecture, Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark 

2012–2015
Magíster en Arquitectura y Diseño Mención Náutico y Marítimo, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile

2005–2009
MA Cantab,  BA(Hons) Architecture, University of Cambridge, UK

since 2021
PhD Fellow, Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark

2021
Visiting Faculty, CEPT University, India

2019
Visiting Faculty, Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements, Bangladesh

Book

  • 2026. Forthcoming. As editor. With Ariel Huber and Arijit Chatterjee. Mission Clay: Architectural Imprints of the Basel Mission and the Mangalore Tile. Basel: Christoph Merian Verlag.

 

Book Chapter

  • 2024. With Arijit Chatterjee. "Imprints of the Basel Mission Industries on Indian Ocean Architectures." In Architectural Encounters in Asia Pacific: Built Traces of Intercolonial Trade, Industry and Labour, 1800s–1950s, edited by Amanda Achmadi, Paul Walker, and Soon-Tzu Speechley. Bloomsbury Academic.

 

Articles and Conference Papers

  • 2023. "Of Coconuts and Clay" In Material Practices: Positionality, Methodology and Ethics, edited by Meike Schalk, Karin Reisinger, Elena Markus, and Uta Leconte. Munich: TUM School of Engineering and Design.
  • 2023. With A. Chatterjee. "Cartographies of Clay." Material as Method: New Histories of the Built Environment, Annual Conference on South Asia, Center for South Asia, a member of The International Division at UW-Madison, Wisconsin.
  • 2022. With Arijit Chatterjee. "Basel Mission: Building Cultures." In Architecture Suisse 226(3). 
  • 2021. With Arijit Chatterjee. "The Travel of the Tile." CAMEA Adelaide Congress 2021.