Most valued literature on the Nepali built environment draws our attention to the easily definable extremes of vernacular buildings and architecture. These categories are considered pure and exclusive: architecture is considered modern, designed and executed by professionals. Vernacular buildings are built by ordinary people without the help of formal experts such as architects. Vernacular strictly belongs to the place, to its past and untouched by foreign influences, while modern architecture can help transform traditional societies into modern societies that resemble the advanced-west. While these concepts may hold true at the extremes –or in regard to their core values-- most of the built environment belongs to the “gray” area or the liminal space in-between these, and are hybrids with multiple influences. This thesis concerns the production of spaces and building practices by ordinary people, particularly in rural Nepal who are increasingly influenced by western and other modernity. This thesis is an investigation into this ordinary architecture, the “in-between.” It asks what people build, how they build and why? The study, which follows these broad questions, is an inquiry into the lives of the ordinary people in a rural setting and it investigates the nature of ordinary building practices. It attempts to understand how people and their lives connect to the built environment and how the local is connected to the global and other places outside local and national boundaries. / Department of Architecture

Nepalese architectural craft production still relies on traditional hand tools and an ancient process, despite the intense labor and time requirements to produce traditional craft. This thesis examines the underlying issues inherent in the making of traditional crafts, and proposes an integration of modern digital fabrication tools and production processes that support a fast, economical process from design to production and integrating contemporary digital practices in the creation of ornamentation and carvings. / Department of Architecture