POINT OF DEPARTURE
Informed by the analysis of the ways that smugglers operate at different systemic levels and scales, the project intends to create a spatial materialization of the rhizomatic-like nature that formed the base for their invisible infrastructure. On the metaphorical level, the design acts as a commentary on the relationship between Balochi and the state’s exploitative practices towards the material and social resources of Baluchistan. The design translates the already-used strategies by smugglers into spatial means, such as creating conditions of obscurity and confusion. The project, therefore, spatializes the current routine of the ‘ hide and seek’ game that the smugglers and law enforcement forces repeatedly play out. The design aims to enable sustaining smugglers’ main activity and to permit regaining the sense of adherence to the homeland as own-controlled territory. This is expected to be achieved by developing a strategy that eventually sets up premises generating temporal circumstances of independence. Rather than imposing an instant, site-specific solution, the project proposes systemic spatial tactics that can be gradually introduced in various locations along the border. Therefore, the design is meant to evolve organically over time, alongside the smugglers’ needs resulting from varied trade intensity in different areas. Instead of a physically fixed proposal, the project can be perceived as a manual for a spatial blueprint to be adjusted to the particular conditions.
