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2007 International
Bamboo Building
Design Competition

“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. Back to the beginning>>>