Bamboo Houses
While not necessarily prevalent in the western world, bamboo
is a material that has been used in the construction of homes
for centuries. With deforestation becoming a real issue, bamboo
is suddenly being viewed as one of the potential cures for that
particular problem.
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Bamboo House |
Bamboo is not only a strong, durable material that looks great,
it also grows a whole lot faster than your average tree, making
it that much easier to replace once it has been harvested for
building use. It's an environmentally friendly way to create a
new living space, which is why bamboo is now being embraced as
a building material used for more than just making furniture.
There are a number of different bamboo homes that have starting
to pop up all over the world, utilizing the material in a number
of different ways. Some of the homes look like a traditional wooden
home, while others have an architecturally interesting design
that makes them very unique indeed.
One type that falls into that latter category is the folding
bamboo houses found in China. They were initially built as temporary
housing for residents displaced by earthquake damage, but are
now viewed by many as a viable alternative to the traditional
home set-up.
Luxury Bamboo Home
Another way to create homes from bamboo is using a weaving method
that makes the finished structure look almost like an oversized
basket. These homes look like they were made from a single piece,
with no lines or seams to be found anywhere. It's a distinctive
look that probably won't appeal to everyone, but there can be
no denying the positive impact that these types of homes have
on the environment.
While the aforementioned home are built solely with bamboo, there
are others out there that use a number of other materials in combination
with the bamboo to create a space that is still very much something
that would make Mother Nature very happy indeed.
In Thailand, for example, there are open-roofed style homes that
use bamboo as natural screen over the windows, protecting the
home from the noise and elements that sit right outside. There
are also more traditional looking homes that have bamboo used
in everything from the flooring to the supports used to hold up
the outside deck.
Interior of a bamboo house in Thailand
There is no argument that climate change is real and there is
no argument about how quickly our forests are disappearing. We
simply cannot create new trees at the rate in which we chop them
down for construction purposes, which means finding a suitable
alternative needs to be high on the priority list.
Bamboo is that material for many people, as it is easy to grow
and has all the right properties required for home construction.
Strong and durable, bamboo can easily be used in place of wood
in many types of constructions, which is why you should expect
to see more of it in the coming years.
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