Overview

Bamboo is an incredibly versatile material, with uses across construction, food, cloth, paper, biofuel, and more [1]. As bamboo grows into a mature culm, it gains the structural integrity and tensile strength that make it suitable for construction.

Fun facts about bamboo [1]:

• globally, bamboo covers over 31 million hectares of forestland, with more than 60% located in China, Brazil, and India
• there are between 1225 and 1500 unique species of bamboo
• bamboo can grow as fast as two inches per hour, reaching 60 feet in three months

Unlike cutting down trees to produce wood, harvesting bamboo has negligible deforestation impact because bamboo grows so fast. While most woods need roughly 20 years to reach maturity, bamboo can reach maturity in three years [1]. Bamboo also has a notably high carbon dioxide fixation rate, serving as a carbon sink that mitigates the impacts of climate change.

The strength, flexibility, sustainability, and economic viability of bamboo highlight the material as a suitable option for residential construction, especially in geographic regions where bamboo is grown locally. By rethinking current approaches to building, we can save the planet, solve housing shortages, and look good while doing it.

Bamboo residential construction techniques can be broadly divided into vernacular and engineered methods. In the figure below, Widyowijatnoko breaks down further categorizations for bamboo construction [2].

Bamboo construction classification [2].

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References

[1] A. Emamverdiam, Y. Ding, F. Ranaei, and Z. Ahmad, “Application of Bamboo Plants in Nine Aspects,” TheScientificWorldJournal, vol. 2020, no. 7284203, Sep. 2020, https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/7284203.

[2] A. Widyowijatnoko and K. Harries, “20 - Joints in bamboo construction,” Nonconventional and Vernacular Construction Materials (Second Edition), pp. 561-596, Jan. 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102704-2.00020-2.