On November 18th, Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig (TUM Department of Architecture) will give a talk entitled “Living Bridges: How Traditional Indian Building Techniques Can Make Modern Cities More Climate-Friendly”. In India, the indigenous Khasi and Jaintia peoples have long built bridges out of living aerial roots in order to cross rivers during monsoon months. Professor Ludwig has investigated these special structures and proposes integrating this extraordinary building technique in modern architecture. As knowledge about the traditional Khasi building techniques has hardly ever been put down in writing, Professor Ludwig and his team conducted numerous interviews with the bridge builders in order to gain better understanding of the building process, which usually begins with a planting. After the plant develops aerial roots, they are being wound onto a framework of bamboo or palm stems and directed horizontally over the river. Due to constant plant growth and the application of various winding techniques, the roots form highly complex structures, which create stable, safe bridges.
These bridges are a unique example of future-oriented building and facing the environmental problems of today, Professor Ludwig wants to approach this topic as the Khasis have. By integrating plants in buildings, he wants to improve the climate as plants are able to cool down cities (TUM press release).
Publication
Ludwig, F., Middleton, W., Gallenmüller, F et al. Living bridges using aerial roots of fiscus elastic – an interdisciplinary perspective. Scientific Reports 9, 12226 (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-48652-w
Please also see Professor Ludwigs TEDxTUM Talk about this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FsheIHHNPU&t=26s
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