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“Indigenous ingenuity: India’s living bridges inspire architects”

  • 2022
  • Anne Pinto-Rodrigues
  • The Christian Science Monitor
  • Feature

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The Story

“Indigenous ingenuity: India’s living bridges inspire architects”
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2022/0608/Indigenous-ingenuity-India-s-living-bridges-inspire-architects
by Anne Pinto-Rodrigues
The Christian Science Monitor, June 8, 2022

The Pitch

This pitch is about an extraordinary indigenous practice from the state of Meghalaya in northeast India, which could lay the foundation for environment- and climate-friendly architecture. Villagers from the Khasi and Jaintia tribes of Meghalaya manipulate the aerial roots of the rubber-fig tree (Ficus elastica) using simple bamboo frames, to build intricate bridges called Jingkieng Jri. 
 
Meghalaya, with over 75% forest cover, is home to some of the rainiest locations in the world. These root bridges have enabled villages to remain connected, especially during the monsoons when streams and rivers are in full force. These bridges facilitate trade between remote villages, enable villagers to access medical care, and are also used by children on a daily basis to get to their schools.
 
The local communities – whose lives are closely intertwined with the natural world around them – continue to use, maintain, and repair these centuries-old bridges. The bridges get sturdier over time as old roots grow and new roots are added by the bridge designers. Each bridge takes anywhere between 20-30 years to form fully. There are many such bridges in Meghalaya, including a double-decker bridge estimated to be 120 years old. With an average lifespan of about 150 years, new bridges being shaped today will be used by the generations to come. 
 
The traditional knowledge used in the construction of these bridges is now being studied by bioengineers in the US and Europe to create similar living architecture. Not only is living architecture free of harmful construction materials, it also becomes home to a host of biodiversity. In the west, native trees like London plane, willow, or hazel are being used because of their ability to grow quickly and their thin bark, which makes them easy to manipulate.
 
For this piece, I plan to interview local experts to understand the traditional wisdom behind these bridges as well as western academics to understand the modern applications of this practice. I have just returned from Meghalaya and have my own pictures for this piece. 
 
Would this story of indigenous bioengineering be of interest to you?
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