Ekawa: How a Regenerative Bamboo Village Took Root in the Colombian Rainforest

Ekawa is the work of Bamboo U alumni Elle and Sergio, who joined the course in 2018 and share the story of their village here, in their own words.

The story of the Bamboo Village began in 2017, when we, Elle and Sergio, fell in love and discovered we had a shared passion: to explore how architecture could serve as a catalyst for personal and planetary healing.

Elle, born in England, studied architecture at the Universities of Manchester and Bath. After a number of experiences in corporate offices and travelling around the world, she was keen to explore an expansive sense of life beyond conventional architecture.

Sergio, originally from Colombia, studied architecture at the AA in London and worked in corporate practice and academic research. After 18 years of living in the UK, he was also ready to move into a new way of understanding architecture and intentional living.

Still in the UK, we began to envision an exploration of the land of Sergio’s ancestors, an old and abandoned farm in the Valley of San Blas in Colombia, home to ancient bamboo groves. The territory spans over 750 acres and sits three hours outside the city of Medellín. As we felt the awakening of a profound respect for bamboo’s potential, we also realised that we knew very little about it. This is when we decided to join a course at Bamboo U in April 2018.

Within a month, we were in Bali, attending the course and feeling inspired by the amazing possibilities of bamboo: an ancient, fast-growing resource that densifies the landscape with its presence while offering endless opportunities for creative projects. Once we had completed the course, we felt empowered to embark on the adventure that would become our project in Colombia.

We arrived in the territory we now call Ekawa two months later. Sleeping in a tree-tent, we heard the calling of the land, inviting us to connect with the fullness of living in the wild and with bamboo as an incredible materiality. This was the start of a four-year pioneering phase, an immersion into bamboo construction, reforestation techniques, and understanding life in symbiosis with nature. We spent our days creating bamboo structures with a team of local craftspeople, who helped us imagine bamboo scaffolding and became our teachers of traditional bamboo techniques. It all began with manual tools like machetes, hammers and saws, only later moving on to power tools.

The dream to create a Bamboo Village emerged when friends began asking how they too could live in this way. This has evolved into a vision of sculptural bamboo homes, surrounded by the magic of the rainforest, holding space for an emerging regenerative neighbourhood of like-minded families. At the heart of this vision lies the Ekawa Bamboo Lab, a workshop and creative space that explores bamboo’s full life cycle. It is a space where bamboo craftsmanship meets experimentation, where design is a manifestation of deep impulses, and where architecture is created to uplift the human soul.

Related: The 3 Ways to Create Amazing Curved Structures Using Bamboo

The first phase of the Bamboo Village was conceived through a spatial vision of balanced density and a sense of re-wilding. Imagine a large nature reserve, where a number of glades hold space for sculptural bamboo homes, designed as extensions of the rainforest itself and created to cultivate resilience and an experience of symbiosis.

The layout of the Bamboo Village is intentional, creating spaces of privacy alongside others with a shared community feel. Pathways meander through groves and forests, connecting homes with communal areas. Sculptural architecture fosters a personal re-wilding, connecting residents with the living landscape. The houses are organic yet functional, with curving roofs that echo the dynamic geometries of wild nature and floor levels that play softly with the natural topography.

At the time of writing, there are five completed houses, each with sculptural bamboo outbuildings such as composting toilets and sheds. Another three bamboo homes are in the process of design and construction. All these projects are minimally invasive and designed to age gracefully within the rainforest’s rhythms. Reclaimed ceramic tiles, green roofs and ancestral construction techniques blend seamlessly with organic bamboo curves, dynamic gridshells and woven-guadua ceilings. The forest itself surrounds the structures, acting as a buffer and holding space for the intimacy of each home. This allows for an architecture without walls, doors or windows.

Local craftspeople, with their ancestral skills and deep understanding of bamboo, collaborate intimately with architects and home-owners, bringing cultural depth and resilience to the project. The design process incorporates their techniques and insights, ensuring that the new structures are rooted in both tradition and innovation. This approach fosters a sense of dignity and empowerment, and demonstrates how traditional craft can inform contemporary architecture.

Related: Let’s Dare to be Flexible – Designing with Non-Standard Natural Materials

The Bamboo Village expresses a vision for a new way of living, one that focuses on rehumanising architecture, regenerating landscapes and rewilding lifestyles, accompanied by the amazing potential of bamboo. As the rainforest whispers its ancient song, the village echoes with a vision of bamboo homes created as harmonious extensions of the wilderness. The model invites like-minded families to join a collective effort, co-creating a sanctuary for intentional living and seeking a future shaped by the strength and grace of bamboo.

Inspired to build your own vision in bamboo?

Join our 11 Day Build & Design Course, the same course where Elle and Sergio began their journey, and learn to design and build with bamboo from the ground up.