Edoardo Paolo Ferrari

Study and Architectural Analysis of the Historical Mosque in Silmo village, Ladakh (Indian Himalayas) in view of its conservation project

Edoardo is an independent researcher and conservation architect specialising in traditional construction techniques, with extensive fieldwork experience across the Western Himalayas and Iran. He holds a PhD in Architectural Anthropology from Oxford Brookes University.
Edoardo has contributed to multidisciplinary projects worldwide, learning hands-on alongside craftspeople through an apprentice-style ethnographic approach. His research spans mud brick construction in South Khorasan, Iran; dry stone walling in Italy and the UK; and carpentry traditions in Eastern Baltistan, India. Through his documentation and conservation work with the Achi Association India in Ladakh, he has focused primarily on Buddhist temples and stupas, while also consulting on domestic architecture projects in the region.

His studies of Ladakhi vernacular architecture extend beyond construction methods to encompass the linguistic dimensions of domestic and building terminology, reflecting his broader commitment to understanding and preserving culture in all its interconnected forms. Edoardo is also a passionate practitioner of Nasta'liq calligraphy and Persian poetry.

He is carrying out the present project in collaboration with Achi Association India, to document and develop a conservation plan for a rare late 19th-century Purki mosque in Silmo village, Ladakh, a stone-and-wood structure shaped by Baltistani and Kashmiri influences. The work combines a 3D survey, photographic documentation of its wood carvings, and oral history collection with a conservation plan co-developed with local stakeholders, addressing the urgent threat facing one of the region's last traditional mosques as climate pressures put this architectural heritage increasingly at risk.