THE UTILITY OF BAMBOO IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
When the materiality of Bamboo is scrutinised, dome and arch structures present themselves as structures with utility in placemaking. Likewise, Bamboo & Earth presents as having utility outside the industrial and investment driven mind set that in turn favours GRIDstructure Planning. In its turn THEgrid carries a kind of 'military mindset' that trickles down into 'housing estates'
This it is said is to do with efficiency of 'people movement' through 'settlements', as opposed to aligning structures with land contours, water sources, etc. It is hard to dismiss colonial imperatives in this kind of mindset.
On a 'domestic scale' the built environment need not be intended to last longer than the life span of the 'occupier' and consequently the fabric of living structures could/can afford to be drawn from the immediate environment. Where bamboo is endemic circular cum arched cum dome structures that appear in vernacular architectures are not seen as 'investments', but they do make good homes.
Over time Bamboo's utility in the built environment has expanded and in ways that needs further exploration in the context of sustainability and climate change. Bamboo in the Asian Pacific region is a kind of coppice plant with willow and a range of other plants providing much of the wherewithal for 'wattle and daub' structures.
If in the 21st C the making of places is to be meaningful fundamental change needs to be embraced and sooner rather than later. For instance, we might take a serious look at Wattle & Daub's possibilities in a 21st C and along with it explore the possibilities of ORGANICstructures that better fit 21st C CULTURALlandscapes, 21st C engineering (mechanical, structural and civil), and 21st C technologies across the spectrum of current understandings.
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