LIVING MATERIALS The Khasi Hill tribe of Meghalaya, India are one of the strongest indigenous designers utilizing living materials in everyday life. The state of Meghalaya has the highest levels of precipitation in the world, with an average of five hundred centimeters (197 inches) of rain during the four month monsoon season, June to September. 026 027 Intense monsoons bombard the region, thus travel is often cut off as many areas are flooded. However, the Khasi tribe has developed a strong and flexible form of thoroughfare which is able to withstand the heavy rains: living root bridges. 028 The Khasi philosophy and mythology has deep roots in environmental and human synthesis, as they see themselves as one with the surrounding ecosystem. 029 The interwoven latticework style living bridges are able to withstand the intense climate of the region better than any artificial or modern structural system. 030 Due to the remoteness of the Khasi tribe’s region, their way of life and environmental synthesis has been preserved from the rapid and egregious over development of India. 031
The author of Lo_Tek Design by Radical Indigenism, Julia Watson, denotes this foundational technology as a socio-ecological system: which “consist of a ‘biogeo-physical’ unit and [is] associated with social actors and institutions.” 032
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