The project titled Documentation of traditional architecture in the Wancho villages in Arunachal Pradesh ibegan in October 2023 with support from the Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme (EWAP) by Oxford Brookes University (UK). In late November, 7 architects from Assam and Maharashtra visited Kamhua Noknu and three other Wancho villages in Longding District to measure sample traditional buildings. 19 structures were measured and the architects are creating plans, scales elevations and other architectural material for the archive. Meanwhile a large amount of ethnographic material has also been recorded: for a traditional community like the Wancho people, the architecture is not isolated from the rest of the cultural context and each house has a storyteller and a story. The videos are translated and subtitled in collaboration with partners in the Wancho community.
The reseach and archiving will be completed in October 2024, and the team will return to the villages and share the outputs that celebrate the ecofriendly buildings and the resilience of the Wancho people in the most remote corner of India.