INHABITAT: One of the major concerns when it comes to building with bamboo is its susceptibility to insect damage. 3-4 years later, it’s dense and mature and ready for harvest.
#IBUKU FULL#
In an established clump, each shoot emerges from the ground full at diameter, growing up to 1m per day. It grows on land that’s not useful for agriculture and thrives on rain or spring water. It grows on most continents on Earth, and we harvest ours from groves deep in the ravines of Bali and Java-from between 1 hour and 1 day’s drive away. There are 1450 species of Bamboo in the world, and my team uses 7 of them. It’s also flexible, making it ideal for earthquakes, as it will bend and flex long before it breaks. It’s lightweight, hollow, round, curving, and tapering. The kind of timber we use, Petung (or Dendorocalaus asper) can have as much as 18 meters of useable length. What are its characteristics in terms of fire resistance, strength, and lifespan?Įlora: Bamboo is a truly sustainable unrivalled timber, with the compressive strength of concrete and the tensile strength of steel. INHABITAT: Bamboo is known as the quintessential rapidly renewable building material.
#IBUKU SKIN#
Walls are woven onsite, and craftsmen whittle bamboo pins to pin splits of bamboo skin onto the floor one by one. No heavy machinery, no cranes, no bulldozers. There are over 100 people involved in construction, with an average of 20 onsite at one time. Our bamboo builders follow this model (not blueprints) to build the structure of the house. This is where the art-and engineering-happen. Once the placements are clear, we make 1:50 scale structural models out of bamboo.
We sketch a bit, and make simple real-scale mockups on the site. INHABITAT: Can you describe the dynamic of your design and construction process?Įlora: We spend time on the land, and with the people who will be using it. Having grown up in Bali, I had already had a taste of the creative possibilities of working with natural materials and skilled local craftsmen, and so the temptation to get involved with what was going on at home was strong enough to coax me away from both fashion and NYC. I felt the need to be involved in a sustainable industry and I realized this was it. My father and step-mother (John and Cynthia Hardy) founded the Green Schooland built every structure on campus out of the most sustainable material they could find: bamboo. What prompted this change in direction?Įlora: I visited Green Schooljust as construction was completing in 2010, and it blew my mind. INHABITAT: Before founding Ibuku, you had a successful career in fashion.
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