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.