Poran Buragohain(graduate in 2025) received an Encouragement Award at JIA Exhibition of student works for master's degree Poran Buragohainさんが「第24回JIA関東甲信越支部 大学院修士設計展」にて奨励賞を受賞 2026.09.04 ‒ 10:39
Poran Buragohain (graduate in 2025, instructor:YUTAKA SHO) received an Encouragement Award at JIA Exhibition of student works for master’s degree.
【Title】
ARCHITECTURE + COLLECTIVE WISDOM
【Summary】
This project originates from a research inquiry into the transformation of indigenous architecture under modernity, focusing on the Jamong and Morung of the Khiamniungan tribe in Kingniu village. Rather than approaching these structures as static heritage forms, the study investigates them as spatial systems embedded within ritual, kinship, ecology, and cosmology.
The research combines archival study, field immersion, village surveys, and architectural documentation. Sectional drawings, mapping, and diagrammatic analysis were used to examine how hearth, enclosure, mound, and roof operate as carriers of social meaning. Drawing from Gottfried Semper’s Four Elements of Architecture, the Jamong and Morung were analyzed not only as material constructions but as systems of enclosure, ritualized center, grounding, and symbolic roof form. This framework revealed how indigenous architecture encodes time, hierarchy, and collective identity.
A comparative global study further expanded the inquiry, examining indigenous spatial transformations in Southeast Asia and other post-colonial contexts. Across cases, a pattern emerged: architectural continuity depends not on preservation alone, but on adaptive coexistence between inherited typologies and new programs shaped by changing material realities and generational aspirations.
The central hypothesis proposes that transformation of the Jamong and Morung alone is insufficient to sustain intergenerational knowledge transmission. Instead, indigenous continuity requires a negotiated architectural expansion—where traditional spaces operate alongside emerging typologies. The resulting design proposal emerges as a spatial response to this hypothesis.
The design materializes this negotiated expansion through a new collective typology positioned in dialogue with the existing communal structure. Rather than replacing it, the proposal operates alongside it, creating spatial tension between inherited form and contemporary program. The new facility accommodates sport, gathering, and inter-village events, responding to survey findings that identified youth disengagement and shifting social rhythms as critical challenges.
Spatial organization is informed by cosmological orientation and topographical logic. Axes align with solar solstices, embedding indigenous timekeeping within circulation and entry sequences. Exterior bleachers extend into the courtyard, enabling festival celebrations to merge with the arena, while interior stepped seating frames games and communal events. The scale anticipates visitors from neighboring villages, transforming the facility into a regional civic platform.
Material strategies reinforce continuity while acknowledging present realities, allowing the architecture to operate as an adaptive system rather than a nostalgic replica.
