Modern Encounters in Architecture – 2025.06.16

The DOCOMOMO Macau Research Center is delighted to invite you to the lecture “Modern Encounters in Architecture: Documentation Challenges of Early Modern Buildings in Nepal”.

Join us for an insightful evening with guest speaker Prof. Arch. Jharna Joshi, in a conversation moderated by Arch. João Nuno Marques, on June 16th, 2025, at 6:30 PM.

The event will be hosted at the Rui Cunha Foundation, located at 749 Avenida da Praia Grande, GF, Macau.

Jharna Joshi is an architect (Tsinghua University, Beijing) with specializations in historic conservation (University of Pennsylvania, USA) and cultural landscapes (Jean Monnet University, France). She recently completed a PhD in Management (Tourism) from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her dissertation, Landscape Aesthetics, Tourism, and Change: Case Studies in Nepal, examines how residents and tourists perceive changing landscape aesthetics in Ghandruk, Bandipur, and Sauraha.

With over twenty years of experience in architecture, conservation, cultural landscapes, tourism, and teaching, Jharna has worked across Nepal, China, Hong Kong, the USA, Vietnam, Greece, and New Zealand. She has led restoration and adaptive reuse projects throughout Nepal, emphasizing local materials, traditional skills, and upcycling. She collaborates with both national and international professionals on architecture and heritage conservation projects and teaches as visiting faculty, focusing on urban conservation, vernacular architecture, settlements, and cultural landscapes.

“Modern encounters in architecture: Documentation challenges of early modern buildings in Nepal “

In Nepal, architectural discourse has largely centered on heritage buildings, which must be at least a hundred years old to gain official recognition. As a result, early modern architecture—structures from 1945 to 1985—remains underappreciated, undocumented, and vulnerable to demolition or decay. The lack of a strong tradition of archiving architectural materials further complicates understanding and teaching this period, leaving students and educators with limited resources.

Kathmandu Institute’s recent effort to document early modern buildings highlights this gap. These structures symbolized Nepal’s push toward modernization, transforming farmland into urban spaces. Yet rapid development and commercialization have overshadowed and endangered them. Gathering documentation proved difficult due to poor archiving and varied formats—ranging from pencil sketches and blueprints to slides and photos—sourced from private collections, institutions, and online archives.

This lecture presents the initial findings of the project, aiming to spark dialogue and appreciation for this overlooked era in Nepalese architecture. Beyond preserving history, the project serves educational and public awareness purposes, laying the groundwork for future efforts toward legal protection and continued research.