Bamboo- An Important Material

1146 Words3 Pages

Introduction
Bamboo is a widely used and it is an important material that is found typically anywhere in the world. It is generally found in rural areas as building materials in small tropical countries, this is due to bamboo having a high strength and low weight. Even though bamboo is referred to as a rural material, Architects and Engineers have begun to incorporating bamboo into buildings for strength and beauty. Bamboo is a versatile, renewable and sustainable resource in South Africa. It is easy to use bamboo in buildings, as simple tools can be used bend and cut it easily. Bamboo construction is also very resilient to wind, easy to build with and is even resistant to some natural disasters like earthquakes (if done and used properly). Bamboo is also used in landscape industry, interiors and as a temporary building material in construction.
Bamboo as a Permanent Architectural Building Material
Bamboo is a building material that is mostly used in rural communities for houses, but even Architects and Engineers are beginning to use Bamboo for it strength as a structural component and a styling agent by means of bamboo window blinds and many more. Bamboo is also commonly used as a type of construction for schools, farms and bridges. Bamboo is also used as scaffolding, shutters, a reinforcing agent for concrete and water piping, the demand for bamboo has recently increased as a new development of variety of bamboo based panels (Dunkelberg, 1992) has been constructed and incorporated into many buildings. Small buildings both non-structural and structural in nature both can be made entirely out of bamboo with the obvious exception of chimneys and fireplaces due to bamboo being a fuelling agent for fires, but it is not used alone it...

... middle of paper ...

...ternational Bamboo Workshop.
Panda Bamboo. (2010 - 2014). Enviroment. Retrieved from Panda Bamboo: http://www.pandabamboo.co.za/environment.php
Utlility Reseach Garden. (2013). Species Overview. Retrieved from Utlility Reseach Garden: http://www.utilityresearchgarden.com/start.php van der Lugt, P., van den Dobbelsteen, A., & Janssen, J. (2005, 02 18). An enviromental, economic and pratical assessment of bamboo as a building material for supporting structures. Retrieved from Bamboo Team: http://bambooteam.com/pablo/200601%20CBM%20-%20bamboo%20article%20in%20press.pdf
Web Ecoist - Stephanie. (n.d.). Building with Bamboo: 13 Super Sustainable Structures. Retrieved from Web Ecoist: http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2011/06/20/building-with-bamboo-13-super-sustainable-structures/
Wikipedia. (2014, 02 18). Bamboo. Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo

More about Bamboo- An Important Material

Open Document