Traditionally in the South Asia, East Asia and the South Pacific, to some extent in Central and South America, bamboo houses were in practice. Now the residential home are gradually being replaced by concrete and bricks. The houses build from bamboo decades ago still stand strong . Bamboo being one the fastest growing plant,having high strength to weight ratio,high compressive strength and tensile strength, how applicable will it be to bring the practice of bamboo homes again?
Why not ? We may work on some hybrid material that uses Bamboo as tensile reinforcement. Not bad for indigenous low cost housing
There were many research papers on the use of bamboo reinforcement for concrete. It can be used for low cost houses, in refugee camps, in temporary buildings,....etc.
As I know, there are many works on Bamboo integrated in classical building material. In fact, integrating parts of natural plants that are widely abundant in nature is a recent and very active field of research called "bio-based building material", starting from mechanical characterization at sample scale. Such characterization is done depending on the percentage of natural fibers integrated in order to determine the optimum percentage that suits each application. After that we pass to higher scales, the wall scale then the building scale, where you can compare the performance of the new material with classical building material. Bio-based building materials are generally characterized by their hygrothermal properties, in other words they can mitigate very well external climatic conditions offering better thermal insulation in buildings as well as a better interior comfort for inhabitants.
Yes of course. It is excellent to use bamboo raw as it is, improved upon by modern technology or turned into plastics as an FRP. which will undoubtedly as I foresee it , be a very good and sustainable building materials in the current effort towards green buildings for rural and urban areas, especially in areas susceptible to ground movements. The aesthetics provided by bamboo for external and interior decorations that can sustain structural loads is appetising.
Once the bamboo is used can it be recycled for other purposes? Will its mechanical properties be affected after a long time?
Yes. It may be recycled for use in other forms. Also if well preserved, and kept from strength reducers, it will retain its mechanical value. China has an over 3000 years old bamboo house and including the Great Wall as examples.
O.S. Abejide How applicable will it be in a scenario to promote the bamboo houses where of using concrete, bricks are going on rapid speed ?
The bamboo as it is or when re-engineered to face the challenges that concrete and bricks face today (and of course they have faced it for more than 3000years in China's experience) will even do better. What is happening now is our high value for taste in terms of aesthetics and buying more land in the air (multi-storey buildings), else, there is nothing wrong. Imagine that most resort and holiday centres across the world employ bamboo in one way or the other. Structurally it is very efficient in seismic areas. They maintain a balance in temperature at both the indoor and out door for human comfort and at ridiculously affordable prices. A bamboo house will not collapse on the occupants such that lives will be lost and while it is still re-useable afterwards. If we can think of it we can achieve it.
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