| Bamboo
has been used as material for roofing, walls, floors, scaffolding, and supports
in the Orient and other places around the world for millennia, due mainly to its
strength and wide availability. However, bamboo went through a period of neglect
by modern builders, but with improved technology, this amazing plant is enjoying
a resurgence in popularity, and new uses seem to be coming along every day. One
of bamboo's strongest points is that it's inexpensive, even though it's superior
in strength to many other traditional Western building materials. For example,
bamboo buildings in Costa Rica withstood a serious earthquake that demolished
other buildings several years ago.
India seems to be leading the way in much of the research being done into creating
bamboo construction products. For instance, in 2001, the Indian Plywood Industries
Research and Training Institute began developing bamboo mat roofing materials
that have allowed roofers to put on a strong, durable covering at a much lower
cost than other roofing materials. India's Bamboo Development Agency is also working
on the development of bamboo concrete technology that shows promise, as well.
In India, bamboo has been
used to reinforce roads, and bamboo has also been employed to create check dams
and retaining walls in South America, but bamboo's greatest potential may lie
in its ability to become a timber substitute. With the world's forests depleting,
bamboo may soon become the main alternative to expensive timber in the construction
trades. Here are a few examples: After
bamboo has been split and treated with glue, the resulting bamboo boards could
be used for nearly any purpose where lumber is currently used. Bamboo that has
been sliced into slivers, woven, and hot-pressed can be formed into a mat board
that's superior to plywood in both strength and durability. The same general technique
can be employed to flatten round types of bamboo, which can then be hot-pressed
and glued into strip boards and used as flooring for truck bodies, railway carriages,
and containers of various sorts. The advantage to using bamboo is that the strip
boards allows a larger unbroken breadth larger than could be achieved with most
timber products that are available today. Those boards are also stronger. The
uses of bamboo seem to be growing exponentially, and will only continue to increase
as modern technology makes more options possible for the age-old, yet futuristic
building material. We've only scratched the surface of what this amazing plant
can do. Copyright ©
2007 Jeanette J. Fisher
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About
Environmental Psychology author Jeanette Fisher Jeanette
began her love for interior design at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California.
In 1985, while remodeling her dream home with her family, she discovered that
traditional interior design practices didn't design for happiness. After the kitchen
makeover, the space didn't feel right.
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