Bamboo and Sustainable Construction

Bamboo is an excellent renewable resource, and it can be used as a sustainable building material due to its features, such as fast growth, high resistance, and durability. It is a versatile material and can be used in different applications in civil construction. Bamboo can be applied for structural purposes, such as beams and pillars, and as a component of armature concrete in replacement or reinforcement of steel structures, such as slab panels and beams. Moreover, bamboo has the potential as a biomass resource for renewable energy generation, and bamboo ash can be used as a cement substitute in cementitious matrices. In this chapter, three types of novel engineered bamboo applications are presented, namely as a structural compound, as bamboo fiber reinforced composites, and as the use of bamboo ash as a substitute for cement in cementitious composites. In all applications, results and data are compared to traditional materials. We also present iconic buildings with bamboo applications, such as the International Airport of Madrid-Barajas, the Sports Hall of Panyaden International School, the Modern Education Training Institute—METI Handmade, and the German-Chinese House.

Bamboo is an advantageous material in several aspects, such as mechanical resistance, lightness, and rapid growth. Thus, it is an excellent sustainable alternative, with high strength, low specific weight, and renewable. This chapter will discuss two structural systems with bamboo. The first innovative system refers to bamboo–concrete composite slabs without the use of steel reinforcement, which consists of half-cut bamboo “joists” of the species Dendrocalamus giganteus, combined with EPS plates that function as filling elements. The system is solidified through concreting carried out on site, like the conventional slab capping. From tests performed on six slabs, satisfactory performances were obtained, both in the ultimate limit state (ULS) and service limit state (SLS), showing a system with great potential for structural application. The second innovative system refers to bamboo Howe trusses for building roofing, using the species Dendrocalamus giganteus, reinforced with grout and metal clamps. The results obtained after executing six elements and analyzing their performance when subjected to stresses proved that the reinforcements, besides the use of threaded bars in the joints between elements of the Howe trusses, contribute to a significant increase of mechanical resistance to the structure. Furthermore, the results of the loads and displacements obtained in the tests allow concluding that Howe trusses can be safely used on the buildings’ roofs because meets the criteria of the ultimate limit state and service limit state.

In recent decades, a growing appreciation of the use of renewable source materials in design and architecture arose, challenging the competence of designers in selecting inputs for the creation of artifacts and building systems with an emphasis on social and environmental sustainability. Bamboo, both as a plant and as a material, is an excellent element for nature-based technical solutions, stimulating and orienting learning toward more sustainable development. Aiming to meet local demands, this chapter’s objective is to present alternative construction techniques involving the culture and productive chain of bamboo in projects for building contemporary systems and components. Its methodology is organized according to the following procedures: (a) establishment of a theoretical framework on the use of bamboo culms in civil construction and architecture, with emphasis on the handling process, prefabrication, production, and assembly of components and constructive systems; (b) survey of documentation and graphic pieces of projects and products; (c) data survey through technical visits to construction sites; (d) data analysis and systematization of project typologies and the different steps in the production chain of constructive systems, taking into account the present context in the interior of São Paulo, Brazil. Results point to the improvement in the quality of constructive components in production processes made with bamboo culms and the optimization and qualification of the productive chain of this material on a local scale.

Although bamboo has been used as a structural material in buildings, the uptake in Kenya has been minimal. The authors’ main objective is to exemplify an approach for using bamboo as a structural material in low-income housing through strategies that respond to context-specific design constraints and socio-cultural needs. Given the need for low-cost housing worldwide and the appropriateness of bamboo for this purpose, a sector of farmers in countries such as Kenya is being encouraged to plant bamboo for the purpose of use as a construction material. The main objective of this paper is to suggest a low-cost residential building design concept based on the use of bamboo as the structural material. This paper initially presents a review of examples of vernacular architecture, the use of locally resourced materials in building elements in Kenya, and the uses of bamboo as a construction material and system, and then develops a typical design of a bamboo-structure residential house based on context-responsive bioclimatic design strategies. The paper also discusses the feasibility of introducing bamboo as a sustainable material for minimizing the financial and environmental impacts attributed to climate change and carbon emissions, from the initial planning to the final construction. It shows that the use of a bamboo-based material should be considered a technological improvement, especially in sustainable architecture design using indigenous materials. Although currently bamboo is not widely used in the formal construction sector in countries such as Kenya, it may be considered a “green steel” because of its low weight and easy harvesting attributes.

The pressing demand to decarbonize construction has ushered in a renaissance for biogenetic building material systems. From hemp blocks to mass timber construction in North America and Europe, the road map is clear for how we might construct a sustainable built environment. However, in tropical and arid regions where current ecosystem preservation is essential to planetary health and where there are far fewer softwood trees, a different approach to climate change mitigation for building construction is needed. Bamboo is already a part of this renaissance worldwide, but further innovations are needed for it to profoundly impact the built environment in these regions. New approaches are required to generate carbon-sensitive solutions for contemporary housing needed for billions of people by mid-century. Currently, bamboo is mainly utilized as round culm (bamboo engineering) or morphologically downcycled into a mere source of fiber for various composites (engineered bamboo). In either case, drawbacks exist, and unless we refine bamboo its impact may remain limited. This chapter will explore two strategies to create basic building blocks and fabrication strategies for lightly modified culm with an emphasis on thick-walled bamboo species. Despite the modification, bamboo can maintain culm integrity and, at the same time, afford slight stock refinement to a more regularized and useful state for construction. This chapter describes a process for species selection, cut culm sorting, orienting, and facing.

With the rapid growth of China’s economy and people’s high-level pursuit of life, eco-friendly materials are gradually being used in home decoration, furniture, and construction industries. Bamboo is stronger, is tougher, and has a greater abrasion resistance compared to wood and can thus be applied as a material in engineering or home decor. However, bamboo also has several limitations, for example, a small diameter, a longitudinal difference in diameter, thin and hollow walls, and a disposition to corrosion and cracking. Therefore, bamboo was initially used in applications of low technological content and low added value. “Bamboo flattening” is a high-efficiency utilization technology adopted to construct flattened bamboo boards from bamboo tubes or arc-shaped bamboo sheets. For the bamboo tubes, penetrating grooves are requested to be created, which are supposed to be widened during the saturated steam heat treatment and are conducive for the tubes to enter into the flattening machine. And tapered, rectangular, or “V”-shaped protrusions nails with uniform dispersions, or diamond-shaped line grooves with a width, depth, and spacing of 1.5–2.0 mm, 2.0–4.0 mm, and 5.0–8.0 mm are always created to release the generated internal stress during the flattening processes. Compared with traditional bamboo laminated timber, this technology can increase the utilization rate of bamboo resources from the original 30–55%, reducing the adhesive amount by 30%. Herein, the achievements in bamboo flattening technology and corresponding physicochemical mechanisms based on published papers and patents are described. Finally, the future development of bamboo flattening technology is presented.

The ancient traditional and sustainable technique of smoke treatment is a proven technique that has been considered for protecting bamboo against natural degradation. This unconventional technique, which is environmentally friendly and derived from a combustion smoke of organic matter and steam, has been slightly modified and adapted to meet the specific requirements in various parts of the world. The rise in people’s awareness about the harmful effects of chemical compounds used to treat natural wood and bamboo products is creating a demand and new opportunities for alternative greener treatments. This book chapter aims to outline the consideration of smoke treatment to protect natural bamboo by considering recent findings in this field from the author’s own work and from past literature. In the former section, the effect of smoke treatment on the mechanical behavior of bamboo, namely its flexural strength, will be discussed. The influence of smoke treatment on another peculiar aspect of bamboo, namely its antibacterial trait, will be also covered in that section. Finally, from past literature, an overview of the benefits and limitations of the established traditional treatment methods as well as the latest techniques to improve the efficiency of smoke treatment methods will be reviewed. Limitations pertaining to premature failure in smoke-treated bamboo will be further discussed, and means to suppress such failure will be outlined. The noteworthy benefits obtained from the traditional smoke treatment of bamboo could be an inspiration for alternative means of treating natural materials.

Bamboo is nowadays considered one of the most promising alternative substitutes to synthetic fibre composites. In addition to being affordable, having a quick growth cycle, being easily accessible, environmentally benign, extremely flexible, simple to develop, and biodegradable characteristics, it also has higher strength and stiffness with low density. Their natural abundance, lower cost, lightweight, and strength-to-weight ratio characteristics have compelled us to consider bamboo-reinforced composites as the most sustainable and suitable composites for wide industrial applications. Researchers are deeply involved in investigating such natural fibre-reinforced composites (NFRCs) for the wider arena of industrial applications that have identified their reliability and accessibility for being involved in aircraft, automotive, and marine equipment as well as in various engineering disciplines. In this regard, various researchers have gone through modelling and simulation approaches in order to determine the performance characteristics of such bamboo-reinforced composites (BRCs). The present work is a noble attempt to illuminate the readers regarding the comprehensive review and summary of the finite element method (FEM) approach that has been carried out in terms of their modelling and simulation (M&S), model type, simulation parameters, and performing platforms, their research outcomes based on the applicable theories and popular methods in this area. The work is also expected to let more experts know about the current status of research in this area which would definitely prove to be a resourceful work for sustainable guidance for relevant researchers.

Being a natural material of complex and orthotropic nature, the fracture displayed by bamboo remains widely unsolved to date. The fracture of natural bamboo is contingent on several external factors ranging from environmental to physical ones such as maturity and humidity. To elucidate the intricate fracture mechanisms in bamboo, there is a need to suppress numerous variables observed in natural materials, namely natural defects, geometry, and other physical and mechanical characteristics. One proven technique, which has shown numerous benefits to probing further into the fracture mechanisms of natural composite materials like bamboo, is the finite element method (FEM). This chapter focuses on the state-of-the-art research involving FEM simulation which has been considered to elucidate the fracture mechanisms in whole culm bamboo. The contents of this chapter will also comprise research findings from recent studies conducted by the author in this field. The research findings, in the first instance, will cover the effects of contributing factors such as material inhomogeneity, thermal modification, and direction of loading on the fracture mechanisms of bamboo. Under-researched areas involving the associated effects of physical and geometrical factors on the fracture of bamboo requiring further application of FEM techniques are also covered. Despite its wide usage over the last decades, the advent of high-end FEM simulation capabilities could exert a key role in elucidating the complex fracture mechanisms in bamboo products and bamboo-inspired structures. Besides, FEM can as well be considered to optimize the material structure of similar bio-inspired and advanced composites in further research.

The increment in the average global temperature and the lack of resources for the built environment are leading researchers to look for alternative construction materials and building design approaches based on nature. Bamboo-based materials have been attracting significant interest in the design and construction of sustainable buildings because of their fast-growing, appropriate thermal and mechanical properties and effectiveness in CO₂ absorption. Thus, this chapter systematically analyzes the methods employed over the years to assess the thermal and energy performance of bamboo-based constructive systems as part of the building’s envelope (either by relevant thermal properties, comfort indicators, or energy indicators) under hot, humid, and tropical conditions. The interest in studying bamboo-based composites coupled with advanced assessment methods is considered a current and trending topic. Most studies, including experimental analysis, are not performed at the building scale, but rather at a local scale that struggles to consider the thermal dynamics the envelope system could experiment. The latter was investigated through four case studies under the tropical climates of Panama for March and October. Here, common bamboo-based envelope elements were assessed and compared to conventional envelope elements with different insulation and thermal mass degrees via parametric analysis based on dynamic simulations. Results demonstrated comparable energy and thermal performance to other conventional envelope elements and, in some cases, successfully outstanding recommended envelopes in the local regulation. Finally, including bamboo envelope elements in buildings help increase energy efficiency by reducing electricity consumption for cooling, not so regarding the thermal comfort in merely naturally ventilated buildings.

Bamboo is a fast-growing plant that can be utilized sustainably. It serves as a potential biomass storage facility, with benefits for carbon neutrality and ecological restoration. Because of its high productivity, strength, and abundant resources, bamboo is a competitive option for wood and synthetic materials. The anisotropic and hollow construction, however, limit its functional applicability. The development strategy is to reassemble new bamboo-based materials such as bamboo-plastic composites, bamboo integrated materials, and recombinant bamboo to enhance the material density and reduce the coefficient of variation. A novel method is to disassemble and depolymerize the raw bamboo to the brown pulp, brown paper, or cellulose skeleton before reassembling it to high-density fiberboard, paper-based composite laminate, and high-strength profiles and integrated materials, which could significantly improve the strength, the interface compatibility, and productivity. To address the low utilization rate of raw bamboo materials, ease of mildew and cracking, and high cost, new varieties of aldehyde-free, high-strength, water-resistant, and flame-retardant materials are being developed, which would help to build the ecological bamboo industrial chain and reduce global warming.