Building with Bamboo

As extreme heat reshapes life across the tropics, the need to rethink how we build, and how we learn, has never been more urgent. This conversation explores bamboo not just as a material, but as a philosophy for shaping cooler, regenerative, human-centred futures. Through the work of IBUKU and Bamboo Village Trust, the session reveals how architecture can breathe, adapt, and restore, offering an alternative to the heat-amplifying concrete and glass now dominating India’s cities.

Drawing from landmark projects such as Green School Bali, the speakers discuss how open spaces and bamboo-based construction reconnect learning with nature, turning campuses into living laboratories where students design, build, and problem-solve with real-world impact. The session highlights how regenerative design cultivates capacities India urgently needs, agency, collaboration, systems thinking, resilience, and how schools can become catalysts for community empowerment and climate adaptation.

Through stories of young innovators creating biodiesel buses, water filtration systems, and environmental movements, the session makes one thing clear: when children grow up close to nature, they grow up ready to protect it. This conversation asks how India can build cities, and learning environments, that cool, nurture, and inspire the next generation to lead a livable future.