Benefits of Using Bamboo as Building Material

Benefits of Using Bamboo as Building Material Colombia Correspondent: On January the 25th, 1999 an earthquake shook the coffee region of Columbia killing over 1,000 people and leaving many more homeless. Most of the dead were trapped in concrete buildings. Surprisingly, traditional houses made from bamboo remain standing. Despite Bamboo’s proven resilience it still lack status as a building material. Hands On discovers that it is in fact the perfect aesthetic new pleasing answer for countries on a fork line. Bamboozled Correspondent: Guadua angustifolio or bamboo grows 13 cm a day 10 meters in 6 months and reaches maturity within 3 years. Once cut it quickly grows. Columbian Architect Simon Velez has used bamboo for 14 years. He’s a passionate advocate of the plant as an ideal building material in a region prone to earthquakes. He has designed an affordable earthquake proof house. It may look just like concrete but the walls, first floors and the roof are held together with bamboo. Simon Velez: Since the earthquake destroyed so much the idea is for people to acquire the bamboo culture for building because it is flexible material and totally indifferent to earthquakes. To pull down one of these structures is almost impossible whatever the strength of the earthquake. Correspondent: It’s flexible and durable. The ideal earthquake proof material but one big problem with bamboo is the need to protect it from insect attack until recently importing materials more expensive than bamboo had to be used. Now a natural solution has been found. Simon: The insect attacks the center of the bamboo because that is the part that holds more starch and sugar and has to be immunized and treated. It use to be done by chemicals. Correspondent: The new method involves placing the cut bamboo in a smoking box fired by smoldering bamboo shavings. These exceed a natural paralytic acid smoke that protects the cut bamboo against insect attack. Simon: This bamboo was dried in the sun and when cut this edge freeze because a bamboo is not very dense. Now let’s see one which is smoked. The difference of this edge is because of the density that the bamboo has acquired during the smoking process and we could see that this cut was slower as it was harder for the saw to cut through. Correspondent: Simon Velez’s biggest achievement has been to perfect a method of joining bamboo together to build a huge structure. The bamboo is cut into hollow sections averaging 6 inches long. To make a joint Velez has drilled a small hole in a single section filled it with concrete and inserted a steal pen. The joint is fixed firm not a steel to the bamboo pole next to it and used to hold together arches or huge roof spans. The cement had strength but the short plug doesn’t affect the flexibility of the bamboo. Simon Velez’s idea is being tested out on the very pavilion which contains 3,000 pieces of bamboo and a smaller number of timbers. The foundations are designed to protect wood from moisture while still allowing flexibility and the capacity to cope with strong earthquakes. The bamboo poles re connected to a metal ring in the center of the roof. It’s attached with iron fittings grafted on to the bamboo poles filled with concrete. Wait for wait bamboo is stronger than steel and a 60 foot roof span in bamboo can carry a heavy copper dome. Simon Velez has no doubt that bamboo is a perfect aesthetically attractive answer and not only for buildings constructed on the fault line.