“… the green steel of the 21st Century”
- Vo Trong Nghia
Bamboo is not a new building material, but given changing environmental design imperatives, this aggressive fast-growing plant species provides a strong and durable construction material.
Bamboo is the largest member of the grass family and is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet – Moso bamboo from China can grow up 900mm a day. Bamboo can be ready for harvest and construction use in three-five years compared with 20-25, for softwood timber.
In January 2020, designer and bamboo builder Jan Balbaligo working with non-profit arts and social enterprise Cosmic Convergence completed the Eco-Salon in San Pablo La Laguna, Solalá, Guatemala. The Eco-Salon is a multi-functional indoor space (85 m2) built on top of an existing public school to provide space for music, sports, arts, dance and other activities to complement and enrich the formal education. The building structure is a bamboo framework, with a bamboo lathe (bamboo splits) roof and bamboo split walls with a Bajareke (clay and sand) infill.
Jan Balbaligo is a great advocate for the use of bamboo in construction and she has worked on a number of temporary festival structures and small school and community buildings and we are delighted to welcome Jan back to Westminster.
Joining the session
There is no need to register for this event, simply join the virtual Blackboard session at the correct time.
About the Technical Studies Lecture Series
The Technical Studies Open lecture program (part of University of Westminster’s School of Architecture and Cities) is an open lecture series, where architects, engineers, writers, social theorists and artists are invited to take part in a discussion about the social use and function of technology in the context of design.
For further details please visit the Technical Studies website, which also contains details of previous lectures in the series.
For more details contact Will McLean – [email protected]
