Priyanka Thakur (M.Arch '24) Awarded 2026 Delbert Highlands Travel Fellowship
Traditional construction techniques of working with bamboo. Credit: Priyanka Thakur (M.Arch '24).
Carnegie Mellon Architecture is pleased to announce that Priyanka Thakur (M.Arch '24) is the winner of the 2026 Delbert Highlands Travel Fellowship for her proposal "Learning from the River: Building a New Vernacular with the Communities of Majuli, Assam, India."
The Highlands Fellowship supports Carnegie Mellon Architecture alumni in the study of collections belonging to locales to promote the professional development of awardees and contribute to the richness of our surroundings. Formerly offered on a biennial basis, the fellowship is now offered every year. Carnegie Mellon Architecture is currently accepting applications for the 2027 award. Applications are due on Friday, October 30, 2026, at 11:59pm ET.
Thakur's project is a continuation and evolution of her 2024 Master of Architecture thesis and a decade-long engagement with Majuli, Assam, one of the world's largest inhabited river islands and ecologically precarious landscapes. She will return to Majuli to critically document and analyze a living architectural archive of stilt houses, flood-resilient construction systems, and vernacular building typologies across the island's Mising tribal settlements. In collaboration with the Ayang Trust, a grassroots organization founded by Vipin Dhane that is known for the Hummingbird School initiative, Thakur will chronicle Indigenous architectural practices and co-develop a replicable school prototype grounded in local craftsmanship, vernacular wisdom, and sustainable material cultures.
The project formulates a participatory architectural paradigm conceived not just for the community, but with them. It aspires to exemplify an architecture that is contextually responsive, socially embedded, and ecologically attuned, addressing the exigencies of a rapidly changing climate. The project transcends the bounds of conventional research. Thakur envisions this project as a vehicle to advance the discourse on climate-responsive vernacular architecture and create an enduring model of participatory design.
"Professor Highlands taught us to look beyond the superficial, to see architecture not merely as an aesthetic enterprise, but as a profound cultural and human response to place," Thakur said. "This project embodies that pedagogical ethos. It interrogates the particular, honors the local, and attunes itself to the lived realities of those who inhabit fragile and impermanent geographies. In the enduring spirit of Professor Highlands, the project contributes to the discipline's collective understanding of how to build with care, with culture, with climate, with people and with place, advancing an architectural paradigm that is ethically grounded, ecologically responsive, and deeply human."
The selection committee looks forward to seeing the final results of Thakur's study and extends its thanks to all of those who submitted proposals for consideration in this year's call.
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The Delbert Highlands Travel Fellowship supports Carnegie Mellon Architecture alumni in the study of collections belonging to locales to promote the professional development of awardees and contribute to the richness of our surroundings. The fellowship is named in honor of Professor Delbert Highlands, who taught courses in architectural design, design theory and architectural history at the school from the 1960s through the first decade of the 21st century. Professor Highlands' teaching emphasized the "individual," the "particular," and the "local." His courses were grounded in authoritative scholarship and meticulously presented fundamentals but always went further by asking students to think of "this time," "this place," and this "occupancy." He has been widely recognized as a seminal teacher whose skill and understanding enriched the educations of generations of students.