Bamboo: An old solution to new problems

Bamboo and coconut wood and husks have been in use as construction materials for the past 800 years, not only in the Philippines but other tropical countries as well—not in large buildings, however, only small homes.

Despite suffering from major setbacks in their growth as materials of choice for the construction of houses, courtesy of more than 400 years of colonization by both Spain and the United States (which both espoused the use of seemingly sturdier stuff like stone, cement, and steel), the lowly bamboo and the oft-neglected coconut lumber are making a comeback—and a strong one at that—in the construction sector.

At the forefront of this comeback are the mostly unlikely of champions—a new-age architect and a government agency.

An Affair to Remember

Why the sudden interest in reviving an old construction technology? For architect Ning Encarnacion-Tan, it was the admiration she developed for the bamboo while researching about the grass’ properties that got her hooked.

This admiration led her to build, with the help of husband Juju and artisans Rudy Encinares and Bert Gallano, in 1992 her dream house on a small parcel of land in the ancestral compound of her in-laws.

The two-story house is composed mainly of three materials—bamboo, cement, and nipa. Of course, bamboo makes up more than half of the structure, providing fixtures for the first floor, such as the kitchen counter and window frames, and the backbone of the second floor, including the staircase and support beams.

Aside from being an engineering marvel, the house is also an environmental wonder, dispensing with the need for power-consuming devices like electric fans and air-conditioning, because of its design. Staying true to the architectural designs of old, the Tans’ former home (they sold it in 2003 to Juju’s brother, Jake, who turned it into a wellness and healing center) draws cool air through small portals located strategically throughout the first floor. This cool air then circulates, pushing warmer air up through the bamboo slats on the second floor and out the gap between the nipa roof and the bamboo frame and walls.

The success of the Tans’ bamboo house eventually caught the eye of ABS-CBN’s Bantay Bata Foundation. Ning was tasked to design the main structure of the foundation’s Children’s Village in Bulacan. And this she did using her original design for the house as a template and incorporating new ideas.

According to filipinoheritage.com, “Bamboo houses are built not by architects, but by the people who will live in them,” in an article describing the art of constructing a bamboo home. Ning Tan has broken this mold by not only designing the new-age bamboo house but also by living in one.

It's a Material World

Bamboo can also be used as the raw material for alternative construction materials. Take, for instance, the Department of Science and Technology’s cement-bonded boards, which can be installed in homes as walls, dividers, or ceilings.

With the country’s construction industry facing grim choices due to strict government regulations on the harvesting of wood, the department commissioned the Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development and the Los Baños-based Forest Products Research and Development Institute to find suitable alternatives to wood.

Less than a year into the research, the PCIERD announced the development of a cement-bonded board that uses bamboo wastes as the main reinforcement raw material.

“Bamboo showed better qualities to reinforce concrete compared to other agricultural wastes like tobacco,” the PCIERD, an attached agency of the department, said in a report. The bamboo was also found to raise the load-carrying capacity of concrete beams.

The bamboo-based cement-bonded boards are now proving their worth in the construction of low-cost housing units. They have become the preferred alternative to plywood, whose supply has become drastically low in recent years.

The supply of plywood has consistently slumped since 1987, with only 517,000 cubic meters in total production output, according to government data. Unfortunately, the supply is not enough to meet the demands of the housing backlog, which stands at 4.2 million.

This backlog is further complicated by the sudden surge in housing demand from the migrant worker population, which has recently become the prime target market of real property developers.

The bamboo isn’t the only indigenous plant that the DOST is tapping for construction materials. The PCIERD is currently supporting the development of another breakthrough in the construction industry—the coco coir board, which can be used as wall and ceiling panels.

Terms of Endearment

Bamboo has about five major qualities that make it at par if not better than wood. First, it grows faster than any lumber-producing tree. It takes anywhere between 10 and 20 years for most trees to grow compared to the sturdy bamboo, the tallest-growing grass in the world, that grows at a fast and steady rate, making it reach maturity in about three to five years.

The bamboo is also one of the strongest and long-lived wood-bearing plants in the world, with more than 1,500 species thriving in the harshest environments. Harvesting the grass is also not a problem, as it does not kill it entirely, unlike culling trees that leave virtually useless stumps behind. It is also endowed with the tensile strength of steel, making it an ideal alternative not only for wood but also steel and cement.

As an alternative construction material, bamboo is making waves not only in the Philippines but also abroad.

In the Hawaiian island of Maui, for example, architects are now taking a second look at the versatile plant, seeking ways to cultivate its economic possibilities by promoting bamboo as a new crop and the construction material of choice.