Lately I’ve seen more bamboo home builders popping up. However, just because these homes are available doesn’t mean they’re right for you. There are pros and cons of bamboo houses. We’ll look at some pros first and later discuss some cons. Tomorrow I’ll post some bamboo home builders for you to browse as well.
Bamboo house by home builders Bamboo Living
The benefits of bamboo dwellings:
- Bamboo is better than other woods due to it’s extremely fast growth. According to The Natural House, some bamboo species have been noted as growing as much as three feet in one day. Wow right?
- Bamboo is lovely – depending on the cut, it’s a great wood visually.
- There are no knots in bamboo which makes it an easier wood to work with and you don’t need special tools to cut it.
- Bamboo is sheathed naturally in silica, which makes it durable.
- Bamboo looks delicate but it’s actually a strong wood. A bamboo home when built well can even stand up to natural disasters like tornado.
- Termite proof!
- Bamboo is an easy plant to grow – and it grows well in various climates.
Something cool about bamboo is that it has other benefits beyond building. This wood serves more purposes making it a smart choice for structures because there doesn’t have to be waste involved. Bamboo shoots are edible. Because these trees grow fast they’re a good choice for planting as home privacy screens or wind blockers. Some species can be used to help control soil erosion. Lastly, small pieces can be used to build just about anything – cutting boards, dishes, art, and more. The waste not aspects of this wood are pretty nice.
Learn more about bamboo homes.
Stay tuned for some bamboo home cons.
Tags: bamboo homes, bamboo house, bamboo interiors, Bamboo Living Homes, container bamboo house, custom home design, eco home, Green Building & Sustainable Design, Nature Inspired, sustainable material
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The home pictured above was designed and manufactured by Bamboo Living Homes of Maui, Hawaii, not Sol Habitat. Bamboo Living Homes is the first and still ONLY source for Internationally Code Certified (ICC-ES) prefab Bamboo Homes in the world.
The principles of Sol Habitat were simply part of the crew that was hired to assemble two prefabricated Bamboo Living Homes depicted on their website. A request has been made to them today to revise their promotional material to more accurately reflect the extent of their participation. We regret any confusion this may have caused.
In November 2004 the International Code Council certified that Structural Bamboo Poles produced by Hawaii-based Bamboo Technologies comply with International Building Code (IBC), International Residential Code (IRC) and Uniform Building Code (UBC) standards.
Since then, the Bamboo Technologies factory in Vietnam has constructed and shipped over 150 building-code compliant bamboo structures used as homes and vacation resorts around the world, including Belize Island Resorts, Belize, Central America, Kalani Oceanside Retreat, Big Island, Hawaii, Bamboo Village Beach Resort, Phan Thiet, Vietnam and The Magic Waters Resort, Rarotonga, Cook Islands (where the bamboo structures have successfully stood up to three hurricanes).
This was the first time a species of bamboo was approved as structural building material for permitted residential and commercial buildings and it paved the way for the legitimate use of structural bamboo worldwide.
Marketed under the band name Bamboo Living Homes most of the structures to date designed by architect David Sands had a decidedly tropical flair. Using new construction material and building techniques Bamboo Living has recently introduced a new line of bamboo homes and resorts that are low cost (starting at $60 a square foot) and don’t look tropical at all. See the new Bamboo Commons collection at http://www.bambooliving.com
Thanks for your continued support for structural bamboo as a legitimate construction alternative.
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You are apparently not as well informed as you lead us to believe. Bamboo is not a wood, it is a grass. Just basic fact!
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One, I’m not trying to lead anyone to believe anything about me. I’m just trying to provide a starting point for someone who might want to do more research. Hopefully no one takes one post or a few paragraphs from anywhere and then uses just that to build a whole house. Also, I know that Bamboo is technically a hallow (in most cases) grass. When I talk about it in building apps though I just generally refer to it as a wood since it’s considered a sort of ‘woody plant’ (see the book Bamboo Rediscovered by Victor Cusack) suitable for whole structures. But you’re not wrong; it just makes it easier than going into a long speech about all the varied bamboo species and why you can build with what’s technically no more than a grass.
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the bamboo home builder in asia are usually for the interior, such as gardening, resturant VIP area, pub private room etc. especially in the south side of asia, the bamboo home shelter is very common.
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@Sam, sorry! Totally my bad – too many browser windows open at once the other day. I was looking at a ton of stuff and just slipped with the link. I’ve changed it
I remember last year I had looked at the Sol Hab site, and it was a lot different; more house posted anyhow. That’s interesting about their promotional materials. -
Our thanks to you Jennifer.
It’s all good. We’re glad to have blog mentions of Structural Bamboo at all. Bamboo homes is gaining momentum as the marketplace comes to understand and demand what we’ve been doing for over 14 years. Structural Bamboo is a great solution for today’s complex eco sensitive construction needs worldwide.
Renovation Nation on the Planet Green cable channel just did a story of one of our bamboo structures going up as a school in Hana on Maui, so word is starting to spread about bamboo in the mainstream.
All the best! -
http://vimeo.com/4874396
Here’s a link to a video about the Renovation Nation shoot with host Steve Thomas at the Hana School construction on Maui.
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