a bamboo studio from mizoram
the mau
research, objects, and archive focused on Melocanna baccifera — mautak, the bamboo that covers ninety-eight percent of mizoram — and the twenty-nine other species alongside it.
the studio
from forest to livelihood.
the mau is a small studio working at the intersection of material research, design, and cultural archive. we study the material itself, rebuild mizo craft for contemporary use, and write down what was about to be forgotten — the work moves across objects, architecture, acoustics, and the written record.
the work is done slowly and in public. the journal carries the thinking. the research section carries the data.
one state, one species, one gap.
the numbers that make the studio's argument.
-
98%
mizoram bamboo that is mautak
Melocanna baccifera dominates the forest
-
30
species in the state
most with no public acoustic record
-
₹66L
annual royalty on raw bamboo
90% of forest-department income
-
₹1000cr+
value once processed
captured outside the state today
applications
what this material can become.
some of the directions worth considering — the existing, the adjacent, and the not-yet. a map of where bamboo already goes in mizoram and where it could go next, not a product list.
structural
- architecture
- community shelters, pavilions, small-span bridges.
- housing
- framed structures, rulam-panel walls, thatched roofs.
- joinery & small builds
- modular kits, prototyping systems, infill pieces.
- bamboocrete
- bamboo-reinforced concrete for civic construction.
material
- textiles
- bamboo fibre, spun and woven.
- paper & pulp
- the existing feedstock. mautak pulps cleanly.
- mycelium composites
- bamboo waste bonded by fungal mycelium.
- 3d-print filament
- extruded from pulped culm, for modelling and joinery.
craft, kitchen, land
- weaving
- baskets, mats, containers from rawlak and rawthla.
- musical instruments
- flutes from rawthla, clap-poles from mautak.
- food
- shoots fresh and fermented; bamboo rice during mautam.
- biochar & vinegar
- charcoal from offcuts plus pyroligneous byproduct — soil amendment, agricultural input.
species reference
the landscape.
one state, thirty species. ninety-eight percent of the forest is mautak. these are eighteen of them, mautak included — each with what it has most often been used for.
- mautak
- Melocanna baccifera
- construction, edible shoots, weaving, paper pulp
- rawthing
- Bambusa tulda
- housing, scaffolding, furniture
- rawnal
- Dendrocalamus longispathus
- construction, water pipes, crafts
- phulrua
- Dendrocalamus hamiltonii
- edible shoots, construction, poles
- rawlak
- Bambusa pallida
- basketry, mats, fencing
- rawthla
- Schizostachyum dullooa
- fine weaving, handicrafts, musical instruments
- rawthing chi
- Bambusa nutans
- construction, edible shoots, poles
- rawmi
- Dendrocalamus strictus
- furniture, tool handles, solid stock
- thing-thupui
- Chimonobambusa callosa
- walking sticks, edible shoots, crafts
- rawpui
- Dendrocalamus giganteus
- heavy construction, boards, bridges
- rulam
- Cephalostachyum latifolium
- roofing, walls, mats
- rawleng
- Bambusa vulgaris
- paper pulp, furniture, ornamental
- sairil
- Oxytenanthera nigrociliata
- fencing, light construction, wattle
- chal
- Pseudostachyum polymorphum
- edible shoots, fine weaving, flutes
- rawtling
- Bambusa balcooa
- construction, scaffolding, furniture
- rawhing
- Bambusa bambos
- handicrafts, agarbatti sticks, construction
- talan
- Bambusa mizorameana
- weaving, handicrafts
- dampa bamboo
- Bambusa dampaena
- handicrafts, edible shoots, agarbatti
“we forgot that bamboo wasn't just in our forests — it was in our blood.”
— on the quiet pillaging