Start of the project

Before the actual start
Gerard van Vloten of D.A.D. Bali (Design and Development), designer/architect on Bali had an idea. He wanted to build a sustainable house in a non traditional way. He wanted a symbiosis between culture and nature, between technology and ecology, between man and his environment. Therefore he was looking for a way to use bamboo as a composites material. Therefore he found a lot of information on the internet, but he also found out that Delft University of Technology was working with natural fiber composites as well. After some time of exchanging information by email, one decided that is was time to start working on it for real. Therefore two students (Chris Feddes and Ramona Steenbreker) of the faculty of Aerospace Engineering traveled to Bali on the 6th of January. Having this multi-disciplinary team, we should be able to combine a good looking design (architect) with a lightweight structure made of natural materials (aerospace engineers).

Start of the project
During the first week, it became clear that the land (with a extremely nice view: see picture) was already available and ready to be used to build on. So the designing of the house could be started immediately. To start with, some already existing designs were looked at. In the pictures below one can see the furniture house of Shigeru Ban (Japanese) and a furniture house designed by Rob Sample (Australian).

Both houses should be built with short fibers. This ‘material’ requires a specific technique and provides a specific look. But working with continuous fibers will be a bigger challenge and the looks will be even more astonishing. In order to be able to use continuous fibers a new design had to be developed. The first idea was to make a cubic house with a cubic sleeping area inside. This is not so new, therefore one tried to changed that concept completely, also to make it a better design for the tropical area it is going to be built in. So we kept changing the design step by step, from cube to container shaped etc. One night we were talking about the way aircraft wings can be built and the next day we changed the design dramatically into a completely different shape. The roof now looked like a wing profile.

This last picture shows the final design (Marquette and 3D impression):

Bamboo Composite Balinese House

General information

A new era started. Houses no longer have to be built out of wood, concrete, bamboo culms, and roof tiles. We leave the traditional way of building behind us and start a new way of thinking. Think lightweight! To be able to built a lightweight structure one needs to use the available materials in a different way. We chose to use an ancient material, which was used for houses for ages. Bamboo! When one combines the strongest part of the bamboo, the fibers, with a polymer resin like epoxy, one can create an extremely strong and light composite (fiber reinforced plastic) material.


Bamboo
There are over 1.250 species of this extremely fast growing grass. A Bamboo shoot grows out of a network of roots. When one shoot dies another one already started to grow. Therefore a Bamboo House grows itself in a short time. The properties of the Bamboo are dependent on the type of Bamboo, the place they grow, the time of harvesting etc. So there are a lot of variables when working with Bamboo. When using only the Bamboo fibers, there are even more because the fiber properties are dependent on their place within the Bamboo. When building a light weight house, one needs the best!















Pictures: Bamboo Foundation;
..Arief next to Bamboo shoot ........................................1 week later (grow 30 cm per day)


Bali
Bali, one of the 17508 islands of Indonesia, which is positioned 8o south of the equator. Bali is in many ways different from the other parts of Indonesia, stating from their religion. On Bali most people are Hindu instead of Muslim. Therefore many different rules are applied, also when designing a house. The height of house can for example not exceed the height of the highest palm tree (≈ 20m). The climate is another mayor factor. The temperature on Bali on average is between 25 and 35 degrees Celsius and during the monsoon season there can be heavy rainfall (average 30 mm per time in February). Besides this, there is the always salty air and an enormous amount of ‘aggressive’ bugs.


Sustainability
In the time that the environment gets more and more polluted, one should start thinking in a sustainable way. A first start is the use of the fast growing material, Bamboo. When a culm of bamboo is harvested, the next one is already growing as well. It takes years for the network of roots to die.
When the structure of the house is finished, micro-climate ecosystems will be installed to generate power and hot water. This is not only good for the environment, but also for the bill payers once it is established.