Great News!!!!

ISVS - 14: 2025 has been announced

An Introduction to ISVS

ISVS-14 Seminar will be held from 20th-22nd November 2025, hosted by the CARE School of Architecture, Tamilnadu, India. ISVS, the International Seminar on Vernacular Settlements, is amongst the longest-running seminar series in the field of Vernacular Architecture and Settlement studies. Started in the year 1999 in Depok, Indonesia, the seminar has been held in different parts of the world such as India, Sri Lanka, North Cyprus and Turkey. In the process, ISVS has gathered a community of scholars: professionals and academics who have contributed to scholarship on vernacular, traditions, culture and human settlements in various ways. ISVS envisages to contribute to the production and dissemination of knowledge of vernacular settlements around the world and establish the meaningfulness, and relevance of vernacular traditions, and cultural practices in the contemporary world. Those who participate in the ISVS seminars contribute to this mission, by sharing their knowledge and understanding about the systems of knowledge and practices that have sustained the vernacular communities for generations and continue to do so.

ISVS-14 Announcement

CARE School of Architecture, Trichy is proud to announce that it will host the ISVS-14 in November 2025, bringing together scholars, professionals, and academics from around the world to the Southern part of India this year. The ISVS seminars foster a global dialogue on the relevance of vernacular traditions and cultural practices in the contemporary world. The upcoming event of ISVS-14 at the CARE School of Architecture will continue this legacy. It will provide a platform for the researchers and practitioners to engage in meaningful discussions on vernacular settlements and their evolving role in today’s architectural landscape, on the theme ‘Borders, Boundaries and Traditions of Evolving Geographies’ articulated more fully in the sub themes. Selected papers from the ISVS-14 will have the opportunity to be published in indexed journals, further contributing to the academic discourse. We invite the architecture fraternity from around the world to be part of this significant event, exploring, exchanging, and expanding the discourse on vernacular settlements.

The Place: Tamilnadu, an Exotic Place.

Theme of the Seminar

Borders, Boundaries and Traditions of Evolving Geographies

ISVS-14 will be held on the theme 'Borders, Boundaries and Traditions of Evolving Geographies.' India is full of Vernacular Settlements, Historical Sites, Wild life, Beaches and Nature. There is no better place to continue the journey of ISVS than Tamilnadu, India, after a gorgeous event in Sri Lanka and after the cyclones in Thailand. With its breath-taking Nature and unmatched-hospitality, India is one of the world's best places to visit. We invite you to come to Tamilnadu, India, present your paper and enjoy the great places, food, Nature and culture. Make new connections for more interractive academic pursuits. If you join online and stay home, you remain on your own and will feel isolated. Therefore we wouldl prefer if you could join in-person.
We look forward to seeing you in Tamilnadu in India in November 2024.

Keynote Speaker 1: 20th November 2025 evening

Our first keynote speaker is to be announced.

Keynote Speaker 2: 21st November 2025 Morning.

Our Second keynote speaker is to be announced.

Keynote Speaker 3: 22nd November 2025 Morning.

Our Third Keynote Speaker is to be announced.

Borders, Boundaries and Traditions of Evolving Geographies.

It is well known that natural landscapes like rivers, mountains, and seas have historically served as natural borders, defining and anchoring the human settlements. Borders and boundaries are significant concepts that people deal with on an every day basis, from one's own place, room, the city and country to the universe. Indeed, borders have enabled the maintenance of cultures and practices defining people, their traditions and identities and the attachment to such borders have posed many a wars. However, as technology advances (e.g., border walls and surveillance systems), people’s physical and virtual separations have become more complex. Today, in some areas, natural boundaries may be less significant than the political or economic ones. However, they are still relevant to the traditional communities in vernacular settlements in as much the others. The ISVS-14 seminar invites the scholars dealing with vernacular settlements to explore the numerous ways and means by which borders exist and contribute to human societies. Unfortunately, not much has been articulated in research and there remains a great need to understand the nuances of borders in human life. This seminar invites you to pursue them, with vigour, vitality and intellectual rigour. Accordingly, following themes are suggested, but the papers are not limited to these themes. Other innovative papers can also be suggested.

Theme 1: Water, Climate Action, and Ecological Action

Theme 2: Water, Borders and Territorial Imaginations

Theme 3: Typology, Tectonics and Forms of Evolving Geographies

Theme 4: Cartographic Image Making and Imaginations

Theme 5: New Geographies, Cultural Landscapes and Representations

Theme 6: Water Systems, Communities and Settlements


Theme 1: Water, Climate Action, and Ecological Action

Under this theme, papers that deal with waterways, and their uses by people impacting ecology and subsequently the climate can be presented.

Theme 2: Water, Borders and Territorial Imaginations

Under this theme, papers that deal with waterways and how they act as borders for communities defining their territories and identities can be presented.

Theme 3: Typology, Tectonics and Forms of Evolving Geographies

Under this theme, geographies that keeep evolving giving rise to new meanings as well as extending the present ones can be presented.

Theme 4: Cartographic Image-Making and Imaginations

While buildings themselves are a result of imaginations, they can also be seen as having produced distinct imageries. Under this theme, such interpretations of how images are made and imagined can be presented.

Theme 5: New Geographies, Cultural Landscapes and Representations

Under this theme, ways of representing cultural andscapes and the creation of new geographies can be presented.

Theme 6: Water Systems, Communities and Settlements

Under this theme, the role of water in establishing and thriving human settlements can be investigated.

An Invitation to Participate


Those who are interested in participating in the ISVS-14 under one or more of these themes are requested to submit first, a 300 word long abstract, introducing the issue, the way the data was collected and what conclusions were drawn from the research. The abstracts are reviewed by the ISVS Review Panel and if approved, the authors will be asked to produce the final papers and submit them for presentation at the seminar.

Publications


Some of the papers presented at the seminar will be published in the ISVS e-journal, after subsequent development, review and revisions. Others will be published in selected other journals.

Please send the paper proposal abstracts to conference@isvshome.com or ranjithdayaratne@gmail.com using the template as noted below.


ISVS14 Abstract Template

Submission Deadlines.

Seminar announcement: 05th May 2025

Submission of Abstracts: 20th June 2025

Approval of Abstracts: 30th July 2025

Submission of Full Papers: 15th September 2025

Review of Full papers: 30th September 2025

Final Submission of papers: 15th November 2025

Please send the final paper only to conference@isvshome.com prepared using the template as noted below.


ISVS-14 Template for Final Papers

Date of the Seminar: 20th to 22nd November 2025

Conference Fee

Local: XX USD for one attendee - XXX.00 Rs.

Local: XX USD for one presenter - XXX.00 Rs.

Foreign: XX USD for the first presenter and XX USD for each additional authors attending (in-Person)

Foreign: XX USD for each author presenter (online)

Foreign: XX USD for one attendee without a paper


Please note that Conference fees once paid cannot be refunded, if you fail to attend either online or in-person. Conference planning is done on the basis of your registration and that cannot be undone, by ad-hoc cancellations or non-attendance. Certificates of Attendance (in-Person) cannot be issued to those who do not attend in-person. This means if only one person attended, and presented a paper with several authors, that person will receive the certificate of attendance and not all the authors listed in the paper. Similarly, those who present online will receive a 'certificate of presentation (online)'. Again, only those registered will have access to the seminar and the presentation seession and will receive the certificate. If there are more authors to the paper and they do not register, they cannot be admitted to the seminar and will not receive any certificate to say that they presented the paper at the seminar. In otherwords, the certificates will correspond to the actual participation: either online or in-person.

Final Seminar Schedule

ISVS-14 Tentative Schedule

Accomodation Options

Option 01. Luxury Accomodation in a Hotel: XXXX

About 4 km away from the venue, further away towards

Single: XX USD B/B per night;

Double: XX USD B/B per night;

Triple: XX USD B/B per night;

Booking to avail these rates have to be made through CARE. Therefore, if you need any reservations, do let us know early. Otherwise, you can book direct. The CARE School of Architecture will provide a pick-up and drop-off in the morning and in the evening on the 20th and 22nd.
Please visit the website below for details. http://www.xxxx.com/accommodation.php

Option 02. XXXX Hotel, XXXX

About 8-10 km away from the venue towards XXXX

Single: XX USD B/B per night;

Double: XX USD B/B per night;

Triple: XX USD B/B per night;

Booking to avail these rates have to be made through CARE. Therefore, if you need any reservations to these rates, do let us know early. If not you can book direct. The CARE School of Architecture will provide a pick-up and drop-off in the morning and in the evening on 20th and 22nd.
Please visit the website for details. https://www.XXXX.com/colombo/rooms.html

With XXXX rooms, ISVS recommends this the most, so that all the participants can preferably stay in one place

Option 03: Centre: AC Rooms

About half a KM away from the University
Please visit the website below for detais. https://www.subodhi.org/gallery/

Option 04. XXXX Hostels

About 4 km away from the venue, XXXX offers modest accomodation in a hostel-like setting with four beds per room with attached toilets. A total of XX rooms are availabe here. The CARE School of Architecture will provide a pick-up and drop-off in the morning and in the evening on the 20th and 22nd if needed.
Please visit the website below for detais and go to the bottom: accomodation. https://www.XXX.In/Tamilnadu/

As indicated, ISVS-14 Seminar will be held within the premises of the CARE School of Architecture, in Tamilnadu, India. This means that you will need to visit India, and it is advisable to approach this task early, as soon as your paper presentation has been accepted.

Those who are attending will be sent letters to support their VISA. Please check the Department of Immigration and Emigration, India for further information.

Contact

For any inquiries, please contact Ranjith Dayaratne at conference@isvshome.com