November 2011: Lecture_The Ancient Stepwells of India

Please join us for the third lecture in the Excavating Innovation 2010-2011 Lecture Series: Steps to Water: The Ancient Stepwells of India, presented by Morna Livingston. Writer and photographer Livingston explores the twelve hundred year tradition of stepwells, an ancient and indigenous water infrastructural system of India. "Stepwells and stepped ponds, are elaborate water buildings with stairs [that] have been integral to life in western India... especially in the arid regions of Gujarat and Rajasthan. These buildings are the visible architecture that marks entry to the invisible landscape of underground water throughout this region, providing life and sustenance to towns and villages. [These structures] have determined life to an extraordinary degree, and the link between underground water and surface life is as rich, colorful. and textured as India itself." Morna Livingston has taught in the architecture faculty of Philadelphia University since 1997, specializing in ancient and medieval water systems, architectural photography, and cultural landscapes. Her books include Steps to Water: The Ancient Stepwells of India (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002) and La Foce: A Garden and Landscape in Tuscany, with Benedetta Origo, Laurie Olin and John Dixon Hunt (University of Pennsylvania, 2001). Her current research focuses on Yemeni cisterns and cottage gardens in Southern Bohemia. Find out more at: http://aridlands.woodbury.edu/lectures/livingston.html