Summary Reader Response Draft 3 - "Building with Bamboo"

 In the article, “An Architect’s Guide to Building with Bamboo,” Vadot (n.d) develops the idea of bamboo as a sustainable material for the future of construction. He mentions that bamboo can mature fast with little maintenance and is widely available around the world. On top of that, being a lightweight material, bamboo will be available at a low cost in these areas and will be affordable to transport due to its light weight. He also notes that bamboo is often referred to as an alternative for steel. However, he added that it is also quite fragile, and requires treatment and protection from various natural circumstances. He then concludes that because of its drastically volatile properties due to nurturing in different environments, it makes it impossible to classify the 1,200 species under a standardized civil building code. However, Columbia has achieved so by determining a code for their locally grown material.

While Vadot provides substantial detail on the advantages and disadvantages of bamboo as a sustainable construction material, he should elaborate more on the challenges of building with bamboo.

Firstly, a challenge that Vadot states is that bamboo is very susceptible to deterioration without the appropriate treatment and protection. Elaborating from Vadot, Kaminski et al. (2016) explains that in warmer humid countries, there is a risk of beetle and drywood termite attack as well as rot damage, which requires structural bamboo to be treated. However, whilst there are many treatment options available, such as soaking in water or smoking and painting, these only have limited effects and are not recommended for permanent structural bamboo. Alternatively, most preservative treatment methods using naturally found chemicals are also not recommended, as they have limited effectiveness or are unsuitable as they pose major health and safety risks. With these restrictions, this leaves just two basic types of preservative that are widely considered, boron and modern copper-based wood preservative. Both of which come with their own drawbacks, be it restricting bamboo to only be used internally or expensive to apply.

Secondly, another challenge would be the use of fossil fuels for transporting bamboo by boat. Though Minke (2012) supports Vadot by explaining that harvesting and processing of bamboo require very little energy, together with the lightweight factor makes it excellent for boat transportation, “causing comparatively little environmental pollution” compared to wooden profiles (p.27). Elemental Green (n.d) argues that as only a handful of bamboo species have the same strength ratio of steel, countries without these favourable growing conditions for these species will have to import it. With that being said, it does not justify the fossil fuels required to move bamboo products halfway around the world by boat transportation. This tarnishes the eco cred of bamboo, to which some may argue it is not sustainable anymore.

Lastly, bamboos are prone to splitting which poses a challenge for architects needing to design around this limitation. Boehland (2006) explains the structural difficulties of creating an insulated wall using structural bamboo. Especially in countries where insulation is critical, the effort and time spent creating an insulated system with structural bamboo is arguable if it would then be better off using "some piece of wood instead". Supported by Gromicko (n.d), stating that bamboo is prone to splitting, especially when standard construction fasteners are used, therefore increasing the difficulty of designing one.

Although there are many benefits that come with using bamboo for construction, there are a few notable challenges that come along with it that Vadot should elaborate more on. This will allow people to make informed decisions before jumping on the idea of using bamboo for construction.

References:

Vadot, C. (n.d) An Architect’s Guide to Building With Bamboo. Architizer. https://architizer.com/blog/practice/details/how-to-bamboo/

Elemental Green. (n.d) The Pros and Cons of Bamboo in Green Building. https://elemental.green/the-pros-and-cons-of-bamboo-in-green-building/

Boehland, J. (2006, March 01) Bamboo in Construction: Is the Grass Always Greener?. Building Green.

https://www.buildinggreen.com/feature/bamboo-construction-grass-always-greener

Minke, G. (2012) Building with Bamboo: Design and Technology of a Sustainable Architecture. doi:10.1515/9783034611787

Gromicko, N. (n.d) Bamboo Construction and Inspection. InterNACHI. 

https://www.nachi.org/bamboo-construction-inspection.htm

Kaminski, S., Lawrence, A., Trujillo, D. & King, C. (2016). Structural use of bamboo: Part 2: Durability and preservation. Structural Engineer. 94. 38.

Image by Guillaume Gauthereau