Bamboo housing design

accessible for the middle class

in the Philippines
A social enterprise in the Philippines is building bamboo houses that are
appealing to the middle class.
Kawayan Collective, a bamboo social enterprise initially launched in partnership
with the non-governmental organisation Base Bahay Foundation, is introducing
an affordable new bamboo housing design in the Philippines, that with a crew
of 10 people can be built in just eight months.

The house in the making. Credit: Kawayan Collective

The construction of the house uses a traditional building technique known in the
Philippines as tabique pampango, also known as wattle, dau or bahareque.
The technique was used in the Philippines, and other countries in Latin
America, during the Spanish colonial period. At the time, bamboo, timber, and
plaster (a mixture of mortar, seashells, gravel, clay and other materials) were
combined to form walls for churches and other buildings. Examples of bamboo
buildings that deploy this technique have stood for over 200 years, withstanding
large earthquakes, paving the way for bamboo to be recognised in the building
code of countries in South America.

The interior of the house. Credit: Kawayan Collective

This cement-bamboo-frame house is a 130m2 loft with two bedrooms on the

ground floor. Bamboo features as the primary structural support, and including
the interior and exterior finishes, the house is 80% bamboo. A large, insulated
roof and screened windows allow for good airflow and minimize the need for air
conditioning or daytime lighting; the design is beautifully crafted to celebrate the
traditional forms of the Philippines’s Architecture. The house costs PHP 2.5
million (roughly USD 50,000).
Bamboo frames in the making. Credit: Kawayan Collective

Nowadays, Base Bahay Foundation, with its mission to improve socialized

housing with treated bamboo, is leading the use of the ‘tabique pampango’
technique in the country under the name ‘cement-bamboo-frame’. Houses
using this technique have withstood major typhoons with winds of 220 km/h,
making them safer but also cheaper: houses build like this are 20% cheaper
than the concrete hollow block and steel equivalents.
These types of bamboo houses help to
create sustainable cities and communities, not only for the house dwellers but
also for the supplier of the bamboo: the farmers, cutters and processors who
can build a livelihood from a previously undervalued local resource, to say
nothing of the resulting climate change mitigation that follows from using the
world’s fastest-growing grass that also captures carbon.
“In our design, bamboo is no longer confined to a ‘poor man’s
timber’ or high-end tropical resort”
— Kawayan Collective
The exterior of the finished cement-bamboo-frame house. Credit: Kawayan Collective

Kawayan Collective facilities in Dauin, Negros Oriental also process over 300
bamboo poles a week into construction-grade treated poles, engineered
bamboo panels and houseware products.