How understanding the politics of division, segregation and isolation can help rebuild a community.
The Naga people, a Mongoloid tribal community who herald from the north-eastern part of India, found themselves divided between different nations and bound by different laws following India’s independence from the British in 1947. The Naga people have since attempted to reunite all Naga-inhabited areas of the former Nagaland through the creation of Naga National Council (NNC), a politically motivated rebel organisation. However, to date unification has not been achieved. Rather, increasing division within the rebels has led to corruption, extortion, a rise in crime rates and the emergence of local mafia. These mafia groups dictate law and taxation levels for every resident in Naga-inhabited areas and the resultant power imbalance threatens to arrest and degrade the cultural, political and economic development of the related areas and their peoples.
This thesis focuses on the various power relationships between individuals, clans, tribes, mafia and councils in a cluster of four markets in Kohima, Nagaland (the only Naga state in India). Crucially, it investigates how these relations are manifested and sustained in the built environment of the market.
Using extensive fieldwork, including site and cultural context analyses, social mappings, interviews and observation, the design thesis tries to subtly intervene within the built form of the market to create spaces of encounter and negotiation. The aim is to encourage dialogue between the traders, expose hidden and asymmetrical power relationships, and empower the traders. More generally, the design focuses on exploring architecture as a mediation force through the act of spatial editing.
