Cailin Shannon, the valedictorian of the School of Architecture’s Class of 2008, will travel to India after graduation to promote the conservation of traditional Hindu housing design. Shannon received a Fulbright Scholarship to 
demonstrate the benefits of local materials and traditional designs for low-income housing.
Shannon’s primary mission is to promote "responsible traditional designs" with the intention of preserving Indian culture. Fearing that "development" is ever more interchangeable with Westernization, Shannon says nations like India risk losing their unique architectural traditions, particularly small-scale housing typologies that are not readily documented. She believes India, "blessed with a colorful cultural past" and "rich architectural heritage," possesses a system of organization, proportion and detail independent of Eurocentric classicism.
"The built world shapes our sense of self, sense of place, respect of the past and traditions," Shannon says. "It is important to research and record local methods of Indian housing design to help small communities protect culturally characteristic design methods."
To take stock of India’s rich architectural heritage, Shannon will spend the year documenting traditional Indian housing forms, examining plans, details and construction methods such as traditional mud-and-red-brick architecture and mud-with-wood housing types. She also will explore adaptations to different climatic, geographical and social environments. Her goal is to help local officials develop realistic housing solutions.
"India’s state of constant growth demands action. Its traditional neighborhoods are in danger of extinction," Shannon says. "I want to urge communities to actively consider their unique regional traditions by providing them with a broad-sweeping study of Indian housing types."
Shannon, who also has a minor in Catholic Social Tradition, led student groups to explore poverty issues in the U.S., repairing dilapidated trailer homes in Appalachia and touring Milwaukee to understand conditions of urban homelessness. In the summer of 2007, she accepted an Internship Grant from Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute to Salasaca, Ecuador to create an architectural pattern book for a local village. Her experience in Ecuador awakened her to the dire necessity for traditional design in the developing world.
"In the United States, poor design simply creates inconveniences made manageable amidst a flourishing economy: long commutes, unpleasant cityscapes," Shannon says. "In indigent nations, it determines the difference between neighborhoods where residents can freely live and work together and attract profitable commercial markets and absolute slums."
During her five years in architecture at Notre Dame, Shannon says, she learned to value regional architecture and to celebrate regional differences. "My field work in Ecuador offered important lessons in recovery of regional forms," she says. "India is a clear progression of my design exploration in a developing world. It is a country with a matchless traditional architectural language at risk of massive cultural loss in modern development."
