FACTS
Bamboo The Sustainable Material
Meeting as usual at Le Quadri Ballroom at 5.30pm to attend a talk delivered by Mr Amar Muhammad Bin Ramli. Before he takes us on a journey of Bamboo as the sustainable material he started off with his story of how he got interested in bamboo. Back then during his master studies, his design was mainly using bamboo as the main structure. After doing all the related research about bamboo but having his lecturer that did not buy his idea, he failed the semester. However, it did not stop him from using the same material to design in his coming semester but this time around he has integrated steel and concrete and he claimed himself that he was playing safe. From that I can see he is definitely a bamboo lover! But wait, WHY BAMBOO? Mr. Amar said Bamboo is the poor man’s timber. It sound very legit even with my limited knowledge about Bamboo.
Foremost, the word “bamboo” is actually comes from the Malay term “mambu”. In the late 16th century, Dutch named it "Bamboes" after which it got its Neo-Latin name "Bambusa”. Bamboo grows mainly on sandy loam to loamy clay soils. They do not tolerate saline soils. They prefer well drained soils but grow also in wet and even marshy locations Most bamboo species grow at temperatures from -28°C to +50°C. The regions in which plant grows in abundance, such as South America, Africa and, in particular, in South-East-Asia.
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When bamboo is heated, the air in the sealed hollow internode chambers will expand and cause an explosive bam-boom sound.
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Bamboo is a Grass Not a Tree Bamboo belongs to the Bambusoideae subfamily of the perennial evergreen grass family Poaceae (Gramineae).
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1575 Different Bamboo Species The subfamily Bambusoidaea consists of both woody and herbaceous bamboos with altogether 1575 identified species in 111 different genera. Herbaceous bamboos are usually small and resemble grass, while woody bamboos (depending on the species) can grow up to 40 m tall and 30 cm in diameter, hence the reason they are often confused for being "trees".
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Bamboo Grows 1 Meter a Day Bamboo comprises of many different species which all have unique growth rates and characteristics. Saying that bamboo grows 1 meter a day is misleading as not all bamboo species grow that fast. Therefore, one should always specify the species. Guinness World Records states that the world record for the fastest growing plant on earth belongs to a certain bamboo species.
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Bamboo Survived Hiroshima An extraordinary example of bamboo's resilience is the fact that it was the only plant to survive the radiation of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.
BENE-FITS
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Bamboo is a crucial element in the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A grove of bamboo release 35% more oxygen than an equivalent stand of trees. Because of this, planting bamboo is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and help fight global warming.
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Bamboo is a viable replacement for wood. It can be harvest in 3-5 years versus 10-20 for most softwoods. It can out yield pine 6 to 1 in biomass production. It is also one of the strongest building materials with a tensile strength of 28,000 psi. To help give you an idea how much this is, mild steel measures 23,000 psi.
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Bamboo can survive more than 120 years in the wild.
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It is a great soil conservation tool. It greatly reduces erosion with a sum of stem flow rate and canopy intercept of 25%. This dramatically reduces rain run-off, preventing massive soil erosion and making it very earth friendly.
A traditional bamboo preservation method.
When transporting bamboos over rivers, which generally takes 3 to 4 weeks, the starch content of the poles is subjected to a leaching process that tends to decrease the starch level and increases its durability. Therefore, when arriving at their destination, the bamboo culms are less susceptible to attacks of microorganisms and insects.
Leeching Bamboo
This salt, is used as an insecticide and fungicide, and is also effective against fungi and algae. It has an infinite shelf life and is not affected by temperature. Diluted with water, bamboo can be impregnated, submerged or sprayed with this chemical.
Boric Acid Solution
I really enjoyed discovering the fun facts of bamboo and I found it super beneficial to be used as a sustainable construction materials but why is it not commonly used in Malaysia? Hard to grow or difficult to construct? I believe Malaysia has the suitable climatic condition to grow bamboo. It is just that the treatment, jointing, expertise and standardization are abit “leceh” once told by an anonymous landscape architect working with the well-known Malaysian architect, Ng Sek San.
The use of bamboo in contemporary building is very rare in Malaysia so I think we should explore its potential as a sustainable material. Besides having many benefits, it is visually aesthetic as well. If we want to sustain architecture we must consider bamboo. I strongly believe that the future city could be built by bamboo so perhaps soon bamboo structures will sprout up around the world.