The University of Liechtenstein warmly congratulates Daniel Haselsberger on the successful defence of his doctoral dissertation, “Raw, Fired, and In Between – On Regenerative Building Materials and Participatory Construction in Bahuarwa, India”, at the Liechtenstein School of Architecture.

In his doctoral thesis, Daniel Haselsberger investigates the transformation of building cultures in the village of Bahuarwa in the Indian state of Bihar. Situated at the intersection of architecture and ethnography, the research analyses the shift from traditional, regenerative building materials such as earth, bamboo and timber towards industrial, CO₂-intensive materials such as brick, cement and steel. Central to the dissertation is the dichotomy widely used in India between so-called kutcha and pukka buildings, which increasingly hinders the use of regenerative materials.

Based on a transdisciplinary research approach, the dissertation combines ethnographic fieldwork with participatory action research and research by design. Through numerous interviews, building documentations and observations, Haselsberger examines the ecological, socio-economic and technological factors influencing local building decisions. Building on these findings, he collaborated with the local community and partner organisations to design and realise the construction of a new primary school for disadvantaged children. The building serves not only as educational infrastructure, but also as a test case for a hybrid construction method that combines regenerative and conventional materials.

The dissertation was supervised by Prof. Dr Lindsay Howe, with Prof. Dr Sascha Roesler as co-supervisor. The work emerged from intensive international collaborations, including partnerships with the Bahuarwa Foundation and the Center for Indian Bamboo Resource and Technology. The results contribute both to academic discourse on sustainable architecture and to tangible social value on the ground.

The University of Liechtenstein warmly congratulates Daniel Haselsberger on this outstanding achievement and wishes him all the very best for his professional and personal future.
 

Articles:
“A Cool School: The Bahuarwa Primary School”
“A School in India – Built with Support from Liechtenstein”
 

Daniel Haselsberger is an architect and research associate at the Liechtenstein School of Architecture. His work is situated at the intersection of architecture, ethnography and international collaboration. Born in 1990 in Chur and raised in Flims, he studied architecture at the University of Liechtenstein and spent an exchange semester at the Bergen School of Architecture in Norway. His Master’s thesis was supervised by Anna Heringer. Daniel gained professional experience in Graubuenden at the architectural practices Bearth & Deplazes and Juengling & Hagmann. Since 2020, he has been involved in teaching and research at the University of Liechtenstein, where he leads a design studio and is part of the transdisciplinary teaching format Pro Bono, in which students initiate projects for the public good in collaboration with real-world partners. Since 2021, he has been working on his doctoral research, which is closely linked to India and to his non-profit work carried out together with his partner Isha Haselsberger, an architect born in India. In 2020, they jointly founded the non-profit organisation Arch Aid, which focuses on community-based building initiatives and the integration of regenerative, locally available building materials for disadvantaged communities.