building with bamboo

Bamboo for Low Cost Housing in IndiaMyths & Reality

www.bamboohouseindia.org


Social enterprise utilizing bamboo as an economic driver for providing

sustainable livelihood opportunities to rural and tribal communities at the base of the economic pyramid and promote bamboo as an eco-friendly

substitute to wood, steel, iron & plastic.


Bamboo is one of the most

sustainable building materials onthe planet and is termed as“vegetable steel” with a tensilestrength of 28,000 per square inch,vs. 23,000 for steel and providesearthquake resistant structures.

Through this presentation on polebased bamboo housing structures,we prefer to offer professional andrealistic advice (based on ourhands on experiences) rather thanwriting ideological sales pitchesbased on book knowledge.

In our opinion, low cost housingand bamboo homes aren’tsynonyms. We assume that peopleare aiming for bamboo homes andstructures with the same qualitystandards as a traditional house!

Cheap disaster relief housing andlow cost rural housing buildwithout proper procedures are adifferent topic all together. Lowcost bamboo housing is still anutopia in current Indian scenario.

Myths & Facts about Bamboo

• Since India is the second largest producer of bamboo in the world and bamboo

growing in every street corner, building with bamboo is cheap.

Myth

• Every bamboo species has its own structural and mechanical properties

and of course availability. First criteria in building with bamboo is the species.

Reality


• Taking bamboo directly will be cheaper as it is abundantly available in the forest. Myth

• Bamboo is governed under the Indian Forest Act 1927, harvesting and

transportation of bamboo requires permission from the forest department .People, who live in the forests, have no

right to sell the nationalised minor forest produce, other than to governments.

Forest department sells bamboo through auction.

Reality


• Harvested bamboo can be directly used for building structures. Myth

• Age of clump and age of Culm is of utmost importance for any bamboo application

more importantly for structural applications. Bamboo culms vary in their

strength and other properties with age. It is therefore important to know the age of the culm to enable harvesting at the right time.

Reality


• Bamboo is naturally resistant against biological degrading organismsMyth

• Bamboo contains high levels of starch which attract insects such as termites and powder-

post beetles. Without proper treatment, bamboo has a natural durability of less than 2 years. Without proper harvesting, curing, drying and treatment techniques, bamboo

won’t last very long.

Reality


• All bamboo species are useful for structural purpose.Myth

• Species of the genus “dendrocalamus” and “bambusa” have the best properties for

structural applications. Reality


• Anybody can work on bamboo structures.Myth

• Bamboo is highly domain specific . Working with bamboo requires very high level of

expertise and asks for a in-depth knowledge on all aspects of bamboo.

Reality


• Bamboo structures can be built very fast.Myth

• Bamboo structures take much longer time to built than regular civil structures since

bamboo work is highly labour intensive with least mechanisation process.

Reality



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• Where is the bamboo species located, is it available locally or imported. Is the raw material treated or not and is it matured enough to suit structural application. All these factors determines the price of the raw material.1

• The whole team of professionals have to stay at the construction site till the completion of the project, this obviously increases the cost of the structure.2

• It is difficult to fix a standard budget as prices directly depends on the quality and aesthetic requirement of the client, choice of roofing, walling, flooring, interiors etc determines the cost.3

• Cost of the structure is directly proportionate to design and shape as completion time shoots up with complexity thereby increasing the labor cost. But this is an aesthetical decision the client has to make according to their taste, ambition and budget.4

• Prefab structures would be comparatively expensive to permanent structures as joinery systems are complex and expensive in prefab shelters.5

• Cost of a structure constitutes of various components like type of raw material, professional & labor charges, shipping, duties & taxes, architectural and engineering fees etc.6

Species

Age of Clump

Age of Culm Treatment

Seasoning

Designing Joinery

Structural Tests

Virtual Analysis

Factors which determine building with Bamboowww.bamboohouseindia.org

“Bamboo House India” is supported in its initiative by :

* Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

* Andhra Pradesh Promotion & Development Center (APTDC)

* National Mission on Bamboo Applications (NMBA)

* Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Delhi)

* Andhra Pradesh Forest Department (APFD)

Bamboo House India

Hyderabad (India)
