Journal

Articles

Articles, notes, and research on architecture, people, and the environment.

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An archive of texts exploring architecture, people, place, traditional building, and the environment. Notes and observations gathered through practical seminars, workshops, and expeditions.

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JUNE 2026

Essays

The Dance of the Joints: Why "Flexible Rigidity" Outlasts the Earthquake

Modern seismic design has largely pursued resistance — adding mass, stiffness, and reinforcement. Yet across repeated earthquakes, failure has often come not from insufficient strength, but from an inability to accommodate motion. An essay on Flexible Rigidity across Japan, Kashmir, Peru, and Georgia.

By Sandro Kenkadze · 12 min

MARCH 2025

Research

Minimal Dwellings in Extreme Conditions

A dissertation on the evolution of vernacular architecture in Georgia's remote mountainous region of Tusheti — defensive towers, winter dwellings, fortress houses and communal graves — and what these typologies can offer contemporary heritage conservation and sustainable design.

By Anastasia Dombrovskaia · 45 min read

JULY 2026

Essays

How Roger Boltshauser Transformed a Thousand-Year-Old Building Technique into a Contemporary Construction System

For nearly two decades, Swiss architect Roger Boltshauser has been reimagining rammed earth. His Kiln Tower for the Brickworks Museum in Cham realises, for the first time at full scale, a Prestressed Rammed Earth structural system — a synthesis of a thousand-year-old technique with contemporary engineering.

By Anastasia Dombrovskaia · 10 min

JULY 2026

Research

Can traditional earthen construction meet the demands of contemporary architecture?

CobBauge is a Franco-British research project that adapts the traditional earthen techniques of Cob and Bauge into a modern dual-layer wall system — ecological, energy-efficient, and code-compliant. A study in how ancestral knowledge can meet contemporary engineering.

By Anastasia Dombrovskaia · 9 min