Spectacular Architecture Made of Bamboo for Sustainable Future

How do you build a future out of grass? On the Indonesian island of Bali, one organization has set out to do just that. Ibuku, an architecture and furniture design firm based outside of Denpasar, Bali is using bamboo to construct Green Village. Ibuku combines green building and renewable materials.

Bamboo is also a sustainable and renewable alternative to timber, which makes it a viable way to give denuded forests a break. And it is spectacularly fast-growing. Hardy claims that she has witnessed bamboo, which is actually a kind of wild grass — grow 1 meter (3.2 feet) in one week. Some species grown up to 2 inches an hour, or up to 1.5 meters each day. 

While bamboo has been used worldwide in construction and craftsmanship for millennia, its structures don’t typically last long enough to be seen as a material worth permanence. 

Ibuku’s answer to this problem is a boron solution that suppresses glucose levels and renders it inedible for insects.

According to Ibuku’s team, “If the bamboo is chosen well, treated properly, designed carefully and maintained, a bamboo house can last a lifetime. The bamboo houses are designed and built to avoid prolonged sun and rain exposure, and are varnished with a weather-resistant coating.”

Hardy’s father, John, a Canadian expat, was among the pioneers who pushed the practice to new heights in Indonesia. With his wife, he founded the all-bamboo campus of Green School in the jungles of Bali in 2006, and creating a lab for experimentation with bamboo building and engineering.

Hardy confessed that she was blown away by his father’s work and felt that it was the way she can be involved in a sustainable industry.

Born and raised in Indonesia, now Hardy incorporates local Indonesian architects, engineers, designers, artisans and craftsmen in creating more than 50 handmade bespoke buildings.

“The architects in my team are the extraordinary outliers. They sought us out to be involved in something creative and unique. Some of them have been working with bamboo since their childhood creating temporary structures for Balinese cultural ceremonies, others are fresh out of architecture school and we just have to bend their minds out of a mindset wrought by an architectural education,” Hardy tells Quartz.

Their team already has luxury villas, houses, schools and infrastructure buildings in their portfolio, and is renowned for their dedication to using traditional Indonesian building techniques.

Source : Quartz | National Geographic | Inhabitat