Bamboo Building and Culture
Simón Vélez pages 1-7
Velez and Villegas 8-9
Bamboo Building 10-31
Hanover World Expo 32-35
Low Cost Housing Solution 36-40
Bamboo Renaissance in South America 41-44
About the author:
Named by Metropolitan Home magazine in 2001 as one of the 100 most influential designers, Darrel DeBoer is a Northern California architect who has built a dozen bamboo structures in this country. He became enthused about the material after seeing Simón Vélez’ structures with 30 foot cantilevers and 60 foot clear spans, entirely of South American native bamboo. DeBoer has researched bamboo construction techniques in Asia, Central and South America. He is the author of the Bamboo Chapter in several books, including Alternative Construction, and The Art of Natural Building. He now teaches workshops of several days to a week duration on the details of bamboo construction.
About bamboo:
As strong as steel in tension, timber bamboo can grow as fast as 3 feet in a day, can be sustainably harvested every year, using a small fraction of the land required by trees for the same structural work. The waste (leaves and branches) can be as nutritious an animal feed as alfalfa. Bamboo can convert society’s waste nitrogen, mulch and water into a construction material that fixes 17 times as much carbon per acre as trees. Darrel will cover proper tool use and joinery as well as design ideas that avoid the more difficult / time-consuming joints.
with PayPal, send the amount to the email address:
Darrel@DeBoerArchitects.com
