Correspondent
KOHIMA, NOVEMBER 16
A coffee book of designs titled ‘The Changing Landscape: An Appreciative Pictorial Ensemble of Naga Building Designs’, by Emilo Engo Konyak was released Saturday evening in Kohima. The pictorial was released by Minister for Roads & Bridges Kuzholuzo Nienu in Hotel Japfü, in Kohima town.Emilo Engo Konyak is a journalist by profession and a photography enthusiast. She said to be ‘inspired by the fast-changing landscape of Nagaland with the rise of professionals in the state involved in designing houses and homes.’ “Without upsetting the intricacies of architecture, ‘The Changing Landscapes’ is a humble effort to generate interest in the study of the transition from the traditional to the modern and the modifications,” she says in the preface to the pictorial.
Konyak says the presentation seeks to convey the need for a professional approach to every aspect of progress. The coffee book is also an effort to convey the need for a closer study of the relative changes that Nagaland and the attitude of her people have been traversing over the years.
Speaking at the ceremony, Minister Kuzholuzo Nienu said the photographs ‘speak volumes of the fast evolving Naga life.’ The pre-statehood and post-statehood pictures of Naga houses demonstrate the pace “our civilization” has been making. He has grown up seeing thatch houses evolve into beautiful architectural designs today, he said. “I am positive that this book will provoke thoughts and minds of the people,” Nienu said, lauding the efforts of the young journalist in putting together the images.
In ‘The Changing Landscape: An Appreciative Pictorial Ensemble of Naga Building Design’, Konyak has accumulated photographs of pre-Indian independence Naga huts dating to as early as 1936 from the villages of Cheswezu and Sugazumi in Phek district, Wakching and Tamlu in Mon district, and post-independence houses of different villages belonging to different tribes across Nagaland from 1948 to modern structures.
She has also depicted the change in heritage buildings of the British era which are now renovated without doing away with the original designs.
An example is the British Inspection Bungalow in Peren, the DC Bungalows in Mokokchung and Kohima and the Inspection Bungalow in Phek.
Constructions of contemporary architecture are also highlighted in the book, reflecting the transitional phases the people are passing through.
