GSA Bookklub | Architecture Without Architects: From Bernard Rudofsky’s ( 1987 )

Our third GSA Bookklub session featured Gudla Hema, Assistant Professor, GITAM School of Architecture, who led a thought-provoking discussion on Bernard Rudofsky’s Architecture Without Architects, exploring the relationship between what we need, what we want, and the spaces we create.

The conversation began by questioning modern architecture’s culture of the starchitect, as recognised by institutions such as MoMA, before turning to the intelligence of vernacular architecture. Through examples such as China’s underground courtyard homes, nomadic tent architecture, and Iran’s mud-brick pigeon towers, the book celebrates how ordinary people have created buildings that respond beautifully to their environment and community needs.

The discussion further explored Rudofsky’s ideas on slow living and how our communities are increasingly being shaped to accommodate machines rather than people and the buildings they inhabit.

An evening of reflection on everyday architecture, collective wisdom, and the enduring lessons of building in harmony with people and place.