To combat monsoon seasons and flash floods, tribes in northeast India have been building sustainable bridges using tree roots, locally known as jing kieng jri. Tree trunks are planted on either side of a large bank and over 15-30 years, the tribes thread the tree roots across a temporary bamboo skeleton to connect the gap. They can grow to hold as many as 35 people at a time and have shown to survive centuries. Personally, I randomly stumbled upon this photo and was immediately drawn because it reminded me of Bridge to Terabithia…
While these bridges may not immediately strike as art, I was reminded of them in this week’s reading about speculative design. Even though this work would be an example of a “Probable” design, I think this sort of sustainable thinking is something that many speculative designers will have to take into account when thinking of the “unreality”.
Read more about the bridges here.
S21 DSGN-264 401 