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It's an amazing building material and there have been a number of recent articles that have highlighted its use as scaffolding material that can be built up to several hundred feet high.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290166/Hong-Kongs-...

In regards to very tall bamboo scaffolding...

A related side topic here might include near famous Indonesian disregard for safety - or at least willingness to overlook it. One of the reasons I was told that by Indonesian workers in Malaysia, whom there are many of. They’re willing to work cheaper and do more dangerous jobs.

KL in particular has a ton of skyscraper work being done by Indonesians and I saw first hand the lack of what i would consider appropriate safety.

I’ve been told by Indonesians their style is to dive head first into the water, then check for rocks. Yes safety is a big issue there and causes a huge amount of needless suffering.
Having been in SE Asia and Bali many times and seen how they spray chemicals against insects... I wonder how they handle that in the middle of the forest... I would never go there without an independant assessment... I love the design but I prefer something closed and airconditionned (mosquitos). Mosquitos are a major issue (even in cities): https://www.nea.gov.sg/our-services/pest-control/mosquito-co...
As an Indian - yeah Mosquitos are a real problem in SE Asia. The usual techniques of dealing with them are - use mosquito nets. In a different video the owners have a mosquito net on the bed frame. Usually with mosquito net, they are a non-issue during night time. The hard to deal with problem is evening time.

The truth is - these houses will never be as comfortable as a centrally air conditioned houses of US. Evening problem can be somewhat dealt with blinds and nets that close off the house after sunset. But the best method is, usually to turn-in early to bed. That is what, people who live in villages do. In the end - owners have to adapt and I do not think these houses are for everyone.

This is a valid critique of the design of that particular building, but not of bamboo as a building material.
Having seen amazing bamboo scaffoldings in HK. I have no doubt about building material (minus how do they treat it against insects health-safely).
I agree...it’s beautiful and makes you get a real sense of the nature that surrounds you but from a practical and being widely used perspective there are a lot more problems to be solved.
Mosquitos in Bali seem to be more of a problem inland (eg Ubud for tourists) than on the coast where most of the resorts are.
This video made by CBS has a few more details, including air conditioning: https://youtu.be/tPJbtMuZvbU?t=196
One problem with bamboo is that it easily grows mold. So even if you treat the outside it's entirely possible mold is growing on the inside. I'm sure there are some good ways to "dip" bamboo and coat it in something to prevent mold growth. I live in Hawaii and I won't use anything with bamboo because it always seems to eventually mold.
I visited this bamboo factory and village. I forget exactly what chemicals they used. I think they said it was a 'bromine bath' - they have long troughs that they fill with bamboo, then pump full of warm liquid. They let them soak for an amount of hours, then wash off the solution. They said this process both hardens the material and makes it less vulnerable to pest damage. Bamboo requires different amounts of treatment for different uses (sounds like too long makes it brittle, but very hard).

Didn't see a spot of mold on the houses we toured - but I'm certainly curious about the longevity as well.

Another neat design trick: they would cut little square holes in posts about 3 feet off the ground, so they could pour the supporting footings through the hole so the cement actually extends a few feet up into the post.

Here's their website - if you're in Ubud, you should visit! Their ~1-2 hour walking tour was nice. Or, you can book ahead to stay in one of these houses. http://greenvillagebali.com/

To be fair, Hawaii is a pretty extreme environment for mold problems. Bali likely is too, but it's hardly fair to judge the material for mold problems when hollow PVC will develop mold too...
This is good design thinking and implementation. My only question would be the susceptibility to fire, any thoughts on this?
Bamboo doesn’t burn well. Often used for cooking because you can throw it in the fire letting food cook inside it. I really liked native dishes that had bamboo cooked chicken.
Design thinking is one of the worst things that came out of IBM. It is an appalling jargon of shaky abstract ideas that, when the time comes to implement, fall apart and at that point you're just doing what any intelligent person would do - use logical reasoning, observation and rational decision making that would occur anyways without this Design Thinking bullshit. This stuff [1] bothers me to no end - Can someone tell me what the hell is this [1] guy talking about!?

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psLjEBUOnVs

Since bamboo is hollow could filling the bamboo with concrete be used to reinforce and increase its load bearing strength?
My guess is no. Concrete fails under tension and with the irregular and natural assembly process the structure probably would have issues with tension and all the extra weight. The cost of filling each bamboo void would also make it costly and less renewable. My gut feeling.
Bamboo is already incredibly strong as it is. The main concerns seem not to be about bamboo’s strength, but rather it’s susceptibility to insect attacks.
They look nice, but I can’t help question how safe they really are, they’re more like giant baskets woven together by artists as opposed to calcuated engineering by engineers.
Can you explain how this is not "calculated engineering by engineers"? My impression from the video is that these are architects and engineers building these.
The particular style of the house in the video is just one many possible designs. I’m sure there’s nothing to stop one from using bamboo in a more calculated design.
I am more interested in the engineering aspects of Bamboo than just the aesthetics. The entire video is about how unique it is, and how beautiful it looks. None of that matters if the whole house of cards falls over. There was an interesting brief comment about treatment to protect the Bamboo from rotting away but very little information was conveyed in the presentation. I wish they'd show the technical fundamentals of why Bamboo is unique.
I visited this bamboo factory - they soak the bamboo in a chemical bath (bromine I think?) and wash it off to make the bamboo harder and less vulnerable to pests.

As such, the bamboo they are building with may have notably different mechanical properties than raw, dried bamboo.

Bamboo has a very good strength to weight ratio allowing you to build very tall structures. The real issue is it degrades faster than wood.
And what effect do those chemicals have beyond just making bamboo fair the elements better ?

If its anything like pressure treated wood in the us I would not go anywhere near it.

Also. Who funds this? This sort of looks like a rich persons pet project that won't go anywhere. It looks alor like I am busy saving the world sort of projects that maybe help a hand full of people untill somebody gets bord.

It's just treated with borates. Wouldn't use it in wet locations or for direct ground contact because it's water soluble and that would hinder its protection, but it's far from toxic as you seem to be implying.

Meh, even if it was some random pet project, it's not the worst way for them to spend their money / time.

Every bamboo pole is different.. For this reason bamboo could never fit into modern engineering practices. Engineers use things like I-beams because, (in theory) each one is the same and they have been tested (probably millions of times) Their structural characteristics are known. So an engineer can sign off on a building and the team can get architectural indemnity insurance. Bamboo, and also things like using the entire trunk of young trees, are much much more efficient in terms of embodied energy. Eg, a tree is designed for strength / flexibility, why cut it up and then glue it back together to form a gluelam beam? Its because engineers can sign off on it then..

Maybe theres some innovative way to integrate stuff like bamboo into modern engineering practices, maybe each individual unique bamboo pole could be scanned (like an MRI) and AI could be used to accurately structurally model it. The the whole structure could be accurately modeled and signed off on in theory.

Don't we deal with the variability of natural products in lots of places by grading? This example is not structural, but every piece of beef has a USDA grade.

I think it is a matter of coming up with a standard (maybe it is imaging each piece of bamboo) means of categorizing the qualities of concern, and then selling in grades. Each grade would indicate a minimum quality or set of qualities.

Houses in the US are usually built with wood beams that are very variable in structural characteristics. Whole bamboo is probably more variable, but this isn't an insurmountable problem.
I saw articles about cutting bamboo poles into blades~ (for lack of a better term) to be joined later to form regular blocks. Less simple but easier at scale.
Wooden planks actually do regularly come with knots and large differences in strength due to the grain - we are able to work around this due to familliarity with them at all parts of the supply chain.

As for why we use planks and not logs? They're all the same size - A lot easier to transport and use.

Can bamboo be processed into regular rectangular shapes? Would be cool to see bamboo 2x4s. The specialization required to handle unique bamboo canes and the design constraints of its shape seems like it would cancel out its cost savings.
Wow, those are beautiful. Very organic feeling. I wonder how much those structures cost...
500k USD for that magnificent 6-storey building, according to this video: https://youtu.be/tPJbtMuZvbU?t=196
What kind of treatment are they talking about?
I believe they treat the bamboo with a borax solution. The designer gave a TED talk that goes into more depth.

https://www.ted.com/talks/elora_hardy_magical_houses_made_of... (treatment method is mentioned at: 4:08 into talk).

Pretty cool, though Bali's climate helps.
What's it like? Also, won't you get insects and birds everywhere with open spaces like that?
I wanted to make a bamboo cabin or even house.. This could come at a better time.
I'd need some walls in my climate here though.
It's what year now, and the video is still Flash?
Density of Carbon Fiber is 1743kg/m^3 and that of Bamboo is 1160 kg/m^3.

Acrlyic, Nylon, Polycarbonate have similar density as Bamboo.

Bamboo's strength falls somewhere between fiberglass and carbon fiber

Some things to think about include ecological factors (bamboo is renewable), environmental factors (bamboo is flammable), loading factors (steel can be made ductile and its high properties are isotropic), and weight considerations (bamboo is much less dense) compared to Steel.

Is this density including the void inside, or just for the non-hollow parts?
> bamboo is renewable

What if it's treated?

For a long time i am looking for a synthetic bamboo equivalent for acoustic properties.

But so far I've not found anything similar. I am thinking, what if I engrave bamboo like pattern on carbon fiber, will it produce similar acoustic?

Can any material/sound/chem engineer help me?

I've worked with both materials, although not in acoustics; I don't think they'll ever sound alike. CF sounds "light" compared to bamboo, when thin, and dull when thick.

I think carbon fiber instruments sound interesting, just not a match for bamboo.

> looking for a synthetic bamboo

Just curious, why?