Lara Davis is an architect, structural masonry expert and co-director at the Auroville Earth Institute, India, UNESCO Chair of Earthen Architecture. She is a specialist in earthen construction and the structural design and construction of thin-shell masonry vaulting (in particular with Catalan vaulting). She holds a BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics (NYSCC) at Alfred University and an M.Arch from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Lara has been the recipient of multiple international research awards for her work at the MIT Masonry Research group, the Institute for Lightweight Structures (ILEK)/ University Stuttgart (Germany), the BLOCK Research Group/ ETH Zürich (Switzerland), and the Future Cities Laboratory (Singapore). She has worked professionally as a mason, foreman, architect, junior engineer and project manager, leading key constructions and teaching workshops in India, Algeria, Ethiopia, Switzerland, UK and USA. Her work has been exhibited at the Modern Museum of Art (MoMA), The MIT Museum, The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the Venice Biennale.