Build with us
Bamboo U is building a bamboo campus. We are building and designing the campus as an ongoing process with the help of students, architects, engineers, and designers from around the world. Bamboo U is a way to share the experience and knowledge that has been developed by Ibuku and green school over the past decade. The buildings on the bamboo U campus will showcase the best of what we have learned about bamboo construction as well as be a place to experiment with new ideas and structural concepts. Our intention is to combine the best of what we have learned, while experimenting with new ideas.
A Living Campus
We call it a living campus because we are asking the people who attend our 11 Day Build and Design Intensive to build and design the campus with us. We have developed a concept and a masterplan for the space, but the details for each building will evolve as we learn from ideas developed out of our educational programs. The campus will be composed of a classroom, a workshop, a bamboo harvesting forest, a dining area, a kitchen, and a bamboo sleeping lodge. There will also be a natural pool fed by a spring located onsite. The project is phased according to the editions of Bamboo U, and the first phase is the construction of our kitchen and dining area. Once this is complete, we will move the Bamboo U program from its current location at The Kul Kul Farm. Our programs are all inclusive. Participants can eat and sleep on site.
Keep reading to learn about the structures we are building.
The Kitchen
Bamboo U has already created a fantastic concept for its kItchen dining space. It was born out of a creative exchange between the Bamboo U team, Elora Hardy from Ibuku, and Neil Thomas from Atelier one. We’re very excited because this will be the very first concrete free structure ever created by us. We are partnering with Change Climate Bio-epoxies to sample their products and build a zero-cement permanent structure. Learn more about this structure soon, here in our blog.
The Workshop
This will be the largest structure on site. Spacious enough to have up to 40 people working on bamboo carpentry projects at any given time. Plus it will have space for important tools such as table saws, standing drills, jigs, CNC machines and 3D printers. It will be designed as a modular bamboo post and beam structure. A series of identical frames will be assembled by students on the ground and then raised into place. As the Bamboo U program grows, so will the length of this building – as different groups from the next editions of Bamboo U will put up more frames, elongating the structure. Our September Bamboo U participants will help with the creative design process and come up with the architectural design for this building.
The Classroom
Bamboo U is focused on hands-on participatory learning where we engage people on a kinesthetic and emotional level; there will be lots of learning by doing. However, we do value good old fashioned classroom time designed to teach the theory behind what we practice. This learning space will embody the organic shapes and curves that characterize Ibuku’s designs. But, unlike most of the classrooms out there, it will be and open air space that makes you ask: “Am I in a classroom, or outside in a forest that happens to somehow have a roof?” We will bring to life a beautiful encounter between the learning space and the surrounding area.
Linda’s Bamboo Forest
Many things have been learned since John Hardy first began construction of Green School’s all bamboo campus 10 years ago. Ibuku–our professional design and build partner–has been hard at work constructing over 50 unique structures since 2010. This led to major strides in developing the potential of bamboo construction here in Bali. The late Linda Garland inspired John Hardy to build with Bamboo. She showed him the power of this giant grass. Her son Arief has since gone on to develop sustainable bamboo harvesting methods which we teach during Bamboo U. If you don’t properly harvest bamboo it can be unsustainable just like any resource. In Linda’s honor we are creating a Bamboo forest as part of the campus to showcase a range of bamboo species, because this is where it all starts with an incredibly fast growing plant.
Please join us to build a future with beautiful, innovative, and awe inspiring sustainable structures.
