Bamboo: A Sustainable Material for Eco-Friendly Construction

- Devansh Oza

INTRODUCTION
Bamboo is the best building material to achieve the goal of cost effective housing in our
country. It is world’s fastest growing woody grass, which is renewable, environment friendly
and widely available. It meets the needs of the three pillars of sustainability that will give long
term profitability, maximum environmental care and social responsibility. The main properties
of bamboo like- tensile strength, compressive strength, elastic modulus, anisotropic
properties, shrinkage, fire resistance, etc. increases its value to be adopted as a structural
element. Bamboo’s multipurpose uses such as- roofing, flooring, walls, doors and windows,
ceiling, foundation, etc. for a house plays a crucial role in achieving sustainability. The
construction from bamboo is possible by making strong joints like- double butt bent joint, bolt
connection, friction-tight rope connection, etc. Different preservation techniques are also
available to increase the durability of bamboo like- traditional techniques, chemical
techniques, etc.

However, its usage in mainstream construction remains minimalistic owing to various

roadblocks which are as follows:

• Lack of resource management and technology is there in our country towards the use
of this material.
• Lack of availability of trained labour, as our skilled labours have insufficient skills to
meet the industry requirements for bamboo construction.
• Poor quality perception and lack of awareness, as consumers have in their mindset of
bamboo’s low value and quality products produced by manufacturers.
• The botanical extract based preservation technique is unknown to people, about its
extensive potentiality and safety for mammals.
• The bamboo products have an underdeveloped market, as there is not an adequate
demand for the product.
• Poor quality of bamboo supplied to manufacturers because the aggregator middlemen
have lack of education on grading and sorting of bamboo.
The following solutions are adopted for the above mentioned problems:

• Lack of resource management and technology- We should adopt the advanced

technology from countries like- Columbia, Costa Rica, Germany, etc. like- Bajareque
technique, Induo-anchor technique, Cane bundles technique, etc.
• Lack of availability of trained labour- The skilled labours should be trained by getting a
degree of technical proficiency and also improving their efficiency and speed.
• Poor quality perception and lack of awareness- The manufacturing process of bamboo
should be improved in our country by increasing capital intensity in production and
there should be quality standardization certification for bamboo products.
• Botanical extract based preservation technique unknown to people- This preservation
technique uses constituents like- terpenes, flavonoids, phenols, alcohols, etc. which
have fungus and termite resistance properties should be adopted in our country.
• The bamboo products have an underdeveloped market- The transportation cost for the
bamboo products to markets should be reduced which will in return expand the
demand for the product in the market and also target marketing should be increased
in this field.
• Poor quality of bamboo supplied to manufacturers- The aggregator middlemen, who
sell the bamboo product in bulk to the manufacturer must be given proper knowledge
and expertise so that standardized quality of bamboo is maintained.

FUTURE STUDY
Hence, we understood that bamboo is the most suitable material for economical construction.
Its tremendous properties, resistances, uses and most important of all rapid growth rate has
made it the right fit for the role. Bamboo will continue to play an important part in the developing
world and its increased availability in our country makes it possible to use in construction
extensively.