Building the Vernacular and the Everyday in Islamic Contexts

The International Journal of Islamic Architecture ’s Dialogues series brings together scholars and practitioners from across varied disciplines for a discussion of critical contemporary issues that interrogate the boundaries between architecture, art, anthropology, archaeology, geography, sociology, and history. This session, the fifth instalment, was held as an online roundtable in March 2025 hosted by IJIA Associate Editor Angela Andersen, and featuring architect and educator Yasaman Esmaili, architectural historian Hussein Keshani, and civil engineer and scholar Solaiman Salahi. Their conversation addressed the idea of the vernacular and the everyday in Islamic contexts, how needs act to shift and adapt building traditions, and how vernacular architectural knowledge is inherently linked to cultural practices and exchanges of knowledge. This is an edited excerpt from the original discussion.