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Bamboo as a Building Material We were fortunate to find the article below, which we feel is one of the better articles about bamboo as a building material and it's history. Published in The City Magazine, of New York City, and authored by Daniel J. Taras, and published in 2002. Hope you enjoy,
CITY Magazine • New York City • May/June 2002 URBAN JUNGLE
Eastern cultures have believed in bamboo for centuries. Now supporters
closer to home are plotting to retrofit a neighborhood near you. ARCHITECT AND
DESIGNER JEFFREE TRUDEAU’S career once found him designing award - winning
homes in the hills of New England. Now, 5,000 miles and more than a decade away, he spends his time barefoot in the jungles of Maui, plotting a revolution in the world of design. Progressive and excitedly do-oriented, he and his cohorts around the world have a very clear goal: for you to know that bamboo- the plant that can save the planet- is coming soon to an urban jungle near you. Bamboo has been a staff of life since time began. From the Mings to the Mayans, Incas to modern day India it’s been used in almost every aspect of life- food and fuel, medicine and paper, lumber and everything in between. Towns, fishing fleets, and palaces were made of bamboo- some lasting for 100 years. And it was environmentally friendly and a sustainable resource long before these concepts were invented. “From harvest to home décor,” says Trudeau, “bamboo is consciously constructed. It’s stronger than steel and earth quake resistant, plus it’s got more than 5,000 uses in China alone. They build 50-story scaffoldings with it in Hong Kong. [Recall the opening fight scene in Rush Hour2?] A popular anecdote comes from supporters of the Grow Your Own House concept, reflected in a book of the same name by Colombian bamboo guru and architect Simon Velez: if you take the square footage of your home foundation and plant a bamboo grove in that area, within five years you will have enough bamboo to build your house.“ It’s totally sustainable,” Trudeau continues. “And we’re linking that with design , so you’re going to see things from bamboo that you’d never expect.” New York designer and bamboo proponent Michael McDonough concurs. “The great thing about bamboo is its strength-to-weight ratio. It’s stronger than steel in tension, stronger than concrete in compression, and more stable than red oak when processed as lumber.” McDonough, co-founder of a bamboo- focused design program at RISD and creator of the world ’s first commercial collection of bamboo furniture, says, “I don’t know of any other material that’s as light as balsa wood but stronger than steel. And aligning those specs with computer modeling has yielded great results: tensile, self-supporting bridges, super-strength bicycles and surfboards, composite lumber, even prototype automobile designs. We need to train the next generation of designers in the use of bamboo,” he continues. “And we’ve got them interested- now we need to expand to the marketplace.” To help make that happen, Trudeau and his partners at Bamboo Technologies- a Maui- based eco-architecture firm- are creating a certification and inspection board to ensure streamlined bamboo production. “The goal is to create standardized procedures- from harvest to Home Depot- so people in design, construction, and zoning will take a look at it.” The certification process will allow bamboo to break out of its current “alternative” designation, and, for the first time in history, make it a viable lumber and design material for use around the world. “Someday,” says Trudeau,“ you’ll go to the hardware store and find posts, beams, paneling, plywood, fencing, all made of bamboo.” The certification board is expected to be recognized by the International Conference of Building Officials this July, and, in the meantime, bamboo’s proponents are making themselves market-ready. Construction is completed on a 70,000 sq ft factory north of Saigon, owned by Seattle-based Bamboo Hardwoods, parent company of Bamboo Technologies. (Trudeau is a partner in both companies.) He recently visited the factory, where 130 pairs of skilled hands fasten bamboo into various products, including custom and pre-fabricated homes that are shipped around the world. “We have 70 prefab eco-resort buildings in Vietnam and 15 prefab homes in Hawaii,” says Trudeau. “We also make posts, beams, floors, furniture, and raw, milled bamboo. But our big thing is the homes. It costs about 25% less to buy and build a bamboo prefab than a typical home, and it goes from shipping container to completion in five days.” Most of the prefabs aren't suited to urban or cold-weather climates; they have Asian- style pitched roofs, woven bamboo walls, and look more appropriate for Bali than Boston. The gazebos, however, make excellent 3-season structures, and those with homes in warmer climes may find the prefabs an option. For city life, however, the focus is on interiors, furnishings, and composite materials. Bamboo’s supporters quietly concede that it still suffers from a Don Ho-tiki-bar image, and it’s hard to reinvent, considering that’s been bamboo’s prevailing rep for the past 50 years. But the façade is changing with the introduction of products like pressed bamboo flooring. Constructed of laminated bamboo strips, the floors are popular and perfect in yoga studios, homes, and retail spaces. “Maple floors are beautiful, but they split and separate,” says Mc Donough. “Red oak is stable, but lacks the grain and color of maple. Bamboo, on the other hand, has the light blond color of maple, a nice texture, and the stability of red oak.” It can also be naturally stained by steaming, a process that produces an amber hue without chemical additives. And the cost? “About the same per square foot as oak.” And it’s suited to large installations as well. San Francisco’s Smith and Fong Co. have 22,000 square feet of their bamboo flooring at the Callaway Gardens Environmental Center in Pine Mountain, Georgia. And all of North America"s Aveda Life style Stores are custom - fitted with their 3/4-inch bamboo plywood, paneling, and cabinets. Bamboo is also an excellent constituent material. Mixing it with concrete can replace the need for steel re-bar, while surfboard designers have found it to be an excellent tool in their quest for the perfect ride. Competition-grade bamboo skateboards (cut from plywood) are used by top boarders worldwide. In fact ,any where designers might consider graphite, aluminum, or composites, bamboo is, more and more, coming into play. Its uses extend to the garment world as well. Clothing made from bamboo fibers are found in Japan, and, according to Takako Ueki, owner of New York's Habu Textiles, bamboo yarn is a cellulose - like fiber popular with artisan fabric makers and weavers. It's cool to the touch like bamboo. It dyes well with natural or synthetic dyes. It's soft and white. You could almost mistake it for silk. Surprisingly enough, bamboo is a grass, and it's native to every continent except Africa; 1,500 species grow in climates ranging from tropical to tundra. It is also one of the hardiest and fastest-growing plants on the planet, with some species clocking a rate of four feet per day. Others grow to be 180 feet high and a meter wide. The strength of the grass comes from the cellulose fibers running the length of the stalk, while its flexibility is derived from lignin. Bamboo also regenerates- cut one stalk and two grow in its place. Harvest is typically low-tech and low- impact. And not only does it grow fertilizer-free, but when planted in damaged soil, it absorbs pollutants and prevents erosion. In fact, bamboo was the first plant to grow after the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Of bamboo's many faces in the West, its influence on Asian arts is the most visible, and for good reason. Writers, poets, and artisans through out Asia hold bamboo gardens in the highest regard, not only as subject matter but as a place to conduct their craft. Part of the cultural veneration on is plain chemistry - bamboo absorbs two-thirds more carbon from the atmosphere than any other plant and releases two-thirds more oxygen, producing super-oxygenated, pure air with perfectly balanced humidity - the ultimate creativity tonic. Meanwhile, the sound of wind whistling through it's leaves can calm the most torrid mind. So at a time when we are discovering the ecological, structural, even spiritual benefits of bamboo, designers are coming up with hip ways to use it. And though it's supporters know it has a long way to go before reaching the mainstream, the progress itself is inspiring news to McDonough." For me, it's what the excitement is all about a low-tech gift of nature married to sophisticated computer modeling At some point, there are going to be objects of desire that produce a paradigm shift, when people see bamboo as a totally different, incredible material". Material items that can heal the world- imagine that.
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