Shruti Sahasrabudhe: From the Valldaura Campus to a PhD in Vernacular Architecture

At school Shruti was drawn to biology, art, mathematics and physics. She chose architecture, the profession of her father, and during her bachelor’s focused on sustainability, biophilic design, local materials and vernacular architecture. Discovering the Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings & Biocities brought biology back into her work: she calls it “a life-changing discovery”.

Before applying, she studied the programme carefully with her family, reading the brochure several times, watching the videos on the IAAC website and speaking with people at IAAC. When she arrived in Barcelona, on her first trip outside India, her parents visited the Valldaura Campus with her and met the programme coordinator.

In the first year, around 20 students lived and worked together at the Valldaura Campus, with its fab lab and agroecology areas. The work was collective:

1. Term 1: small interventions on sites across Barcelona.
2. Term 2: designs for six climatic zones, in six groups of four.
3. Term 3: the design and construction of the Mobile Catalyst (MO.CA), a mobile timber cabin. Students worked in groups of three, then six, and finally as one team divided into structure, interiors and other tasks.

“It was not just problem solving while designing, but problem solving on every stage of living,” said Shruti Sahasrabudhe about community life at Valldaura.

In the second year, ten students continued with individual research on materials including mycelium, moss, algae, bioplastics, earth and wood, while still sharing their work as a group. Shruti also learned Spanish during her two years in Barcelona.

After graduating, Shruti presented a paper on vernacular architecture at a conference in India, where a professor invited her to develop the topic as a PhD. Since the end of 2024 she has been a PhD researcher at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, studying vernacular architecture, ecocentric and anthropocentric approaches, self-sustaining practices and the circular economy, with architecture and people understood as part of the ecosystem.

In practice she designs ecological cabins and house retrofits, and is working on a school project expected to start construction soon. She aims to spread the approach she learned at IAAC through exhibitions, participatory toolkits, community work and ecological networks, including the IAAC alumni community.

For her portfolio, Shruti selected the projects closest to the master, on sustainability, local materials and vernacular architecture, so the admissions team could understand her background and the way she thinks. In her statement of purpose she wrote honestly about what sustainability means to her.