Schools, Airports, High-Rise Towers: Architects Urged To Get 'Bamboo-Ready' (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0180638966
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/01/22/1730215/schools-airports-high-rise-towers-architects-urged-to-get-bamboo-ready
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/22/bamboo-architecture-construction-engineering-schools-airports-towers
> An airport made of bamboo? A tower reaching 20 metres high? For many years, bamboo has been mostly known as the favourite food of giant pandas, but a group of engineers say it's time we took it seriously as a building material, too.
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> This week the Institution of Structural Engineers called for architects to be "bamboo-ready" as they [2]published a manual for designing permanent buildings made of the material, in an effort to encourage low-carbon construction and position bamboo as a proper alternative to steel and concrete.
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> Bamboo has already been used for a number of boundary-pushing projects around the world. At Terminal 2 of Kempegowda international airport in Bengaluru, India, bamboo tubes make up the ceiling and pillars. The Ninghai bamboo tower in north-east China, which is more than 20 metres tall, is claimed to be the world's first high-rise building made using engineered bamboo.
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> At the Green School in Bali, a bamboo-made arc serves as the gymnasium and a striking example of how the material is reshaping sustainable architecture. The use of composite bamboo shear walls have proved to be resilient against earthquakes and extreme weather in countries such as Colombia and the Philippines, where sustainable, disaster-resilient housing has been built with locally sourced materials.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/22/bamboo-architecture-construction-engineering-schools-airports-towers
[2] https://www.istructe.org/resources/manuals/manual-design-bamboo-structures-iso22156/
China (Score:1)
> For many years, bamboo has been mostly known as the favourite food of giant pandas
Bamboo has been used in scaffolding for a century.
But its use is being phased-out because of fire concerns.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, from under what rock did the author just crawl? This isn't new, bamboo has been used in place of steel rebar for some time.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed it has.
[1]https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/27... [cnn.com]
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/27/world/bamboo-scaffolding-scrutiny-hong-kong-fire-intl-hnk
Re:Surely not "enshittification" (Score:5, Insightful)
Bamboo engineered materials are superior to almost anything else we currently use for certain applications.
I spec laminated bamboo structural panels for designs requiring better strength, dimensional stability and vibrational attenuation than current engineered wood products
It even exceeds some traditional metal structural elements in certain applications.
It also costs about 3x as much as other wood for the panels I use, so no one uses it for cost savings. But it does justify that cost with a lot of extra value.
Bamboo does happen to also grow in China, like it does in much of the world, but that does not justify your blind bigotry and racism against a building material.
Seriously? Racism, against plants that happen to grow near by people you don't like? You must be very intelligent.
Re: (Score:2)
lol racism
The GP said nothing about genetic superiority.
If anything they were "guilty" of nationalism and hyperbole.
Re: (Score:2)
> lol racism
> The GP said nothing about genetic superiority.
> If anything they were "guilty" of nationalism and hyperbole.
I pointed out the same thing as you but got modded into Troll oblivion. Not sure if that's because the moderator cannot understand English, or if they just didn't get to you yet, or if the mod was a Chinese agent and is out of points (and his co-agents are busy)..
Re: Surely not "enshittification" (Score:2)
Could be all three, or maybe the troll mods are waiting for more troll mod points
Re: (Score:2)
It's weird, its almost like HOW you say something means as much as WHAT you say. First, you put a whole shitload of words that OP didn't say into their mouth. They didn't say nobody uses it, they pointed out a specific scenario where it is used. They didn't say it was "too expensive", they said it was "more expensive". They said nothing about towers, skyscrapers, or terminals. They said nothing about "major fire hazards". Second, the overall tone of your post comes across asshole-ish. (That one is just my
This report brought to you by (Score:4, Funny)
Big Bamboo.
LOW RISE! / [DUH DOW DOW DOWW] / TAKE IT EASY! (Score:2)
Maybe let's start with some low-rise towers and see how it goes.
What The Fuck (Score:2)
Are you seriously posting this now after 5 tower blocks were burnt down by their bamboo scaffolding ?
Ignorant or demented ?
Re: (Score:3)
If they used asbestos the buildings would probably be still standing.
Re: (Score:2)
> If they used asbestos the buildings would probably be still standing.
And empty.
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I understand that we have had some very serious fires in buildings that use wood, too.
Can you explain to us why we don't stop completely using wood as well?
By your logic, any use of wood for anything after the 1666 Great Fire of London was pure idiocy
Concrete and steel should have been banned after the 9/11 building collapses, as those proved unsafe to you as well I suppose?
Re: (Score:2)
That's a good point, we should do that.
I know you were being facetious to make a point, but really the ongoing use of flammable and mold-susceptible materials in housing is wasteful and disgusting. It's a danger to both the residents and their neighbors. What year is it?
Re: (Score:2)
1851 - San Francisco Fire
1852 - Great Montreal Fire
1889 - Great Seattle Fire
1889 - Great Spokane Fire
1889 - Great Ellensburg Fire
... and [1]many others [wikipedia.org].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_town_and_city_fires
Re: What The Fuck (Score:2)
That concert and steel did pretty damn well given 200 tons of plane doing 200 mph with 100 tons of fuel hit it. A wooden building wouldn't even get that high without collapsing under it's own weight so fuck knows what point you're making.
Re: (Score:2)
I read somewhere that wooden buildings are generally rated to only about 7 stories. So as you say, there won't be any high rise buildings.
Didn't we have (Score:2)
A highrise in Hong Kong that burned up that had a lot of bamboo in it burn up recently?
Re: (Score:2)
> A highrise in Hong Kong that burned up that had a lot of bamboo in it burn up recently?
No. They had a high-rise with a lot of bamboo scaffolding around it and very flammable foam covering windows go up.
20 m is "high-rise?" (Score:2)
Look this is impressive, and I'm all for carbon-friendly building materials. But a 20 m tall building is hardly a "high-rise."
That stuff doesn't grow on trees (Score:2)
It grows on grass!
Bamboo and Fire (Score:3)
Did everyone forget the fire in Hong Kong less than two months ago that killed dozens because of bamboo construction? Bamboo has a lot of points going for it, but they better keep its flammability in mind if we don't want another disaster like that to happen.
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This! There is a reason wood is banned as a building material folks!
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> wood is banned as a building material
Not in the [1]USA [rismedia.com].
P.S. Slashdot is yet again trying to pull some suspect content from the report.error-report.com site (a scam site). Cut it out.
[1] https://www.rismedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/multifam_apartments-iStock-690152756.jpg
Re: Bamboo and Fire (Score:2)
Always makes me sigh when I see yet another news report of a fire or tornado in the usa with some homeowner standing in the smouldering or smashed wreckage wondering what they could have done to prevent it. Meanwhile behind them theres always a brick or concrete chimney still standing. Hmm... clue maybe?
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, this is why there are no building fires in Europe. Zero! And yet the US still uses wood.
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China has lots of bamboo to sell and (/.) has lots of Chinese agent posters pimping the ride for ANY action favorable to the CCP. Thus the bamboo skyscraper meme pretends to serious consideration rather than being laughed out of the building-crane ( or should I say 'go up in flames' ) . House flooring is of-course a different matter; bamboo floors are attractive and sturdy.
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Which is not a concern when it is used in place of steel rebar. A job it does quite well.
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If you read the article, it's not talking about replacing rebar with bamboo. It's about using bamboo in a much more substantial way.
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Oh, I know. Though for the most part it just looked like building things out of wood that we used to build out of wood or still do build out of wood.
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But, of course, Bamboo isn't wood, but grass. [1]https://www.stikwood.com/blogs... [stikwood.com]
[1] https://www.stikwood.com/blogs/workbench/is-bamboo-a-wood-exploring-this-versatile-material
Re: (Score:2)
A grass can be made of wood, and bamboo is largely comprised of xylem - aka, wood. And it is decidedly woody, unlike grasses such as corn, wheat, or rice.
Let's review the film: [1]https://youtu.be/gC4zJSY1ylw?s... [youtu.be]
[1] https://youtu.be/gC4zJSY1ylw?si=pArfY7az-4ftTmiF
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Sorry, YouTube is not a source, it's a soapbox.
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Bamboo is more flame resistant than regular woods and burns slower. And that's without any extra kinds of treatment. So, technically, it would still be an upgrade.
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While bamboo is not entirely inflammable, the Hong Kong fire that you cited was primarily caused by the use of netting that was not fire-retardant, for cost-cutting reasons. The bamboo scaffolding itself largely resisted ignition. The fire was able to spread quickly because of the netting. Bamboo just doesn't catch and spread fire at such a rate.
Sources:
[1]https://www.nytimes.com/2025/1... [nytimes.com]
[2]https://www.bbc.com/news/artic... [bbc.com]
[3]https://apnews.com/article/hon... [apnews.com]
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/world/asia/hong-kong-fire.html
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62lv79p0pdo
[3] https://apnews.com/article/hong-fire-bamboo-scaffolding-explainer-990e3cfd63a0ba4db94bb6459eb2acf3
Construction (Score:2)
[1]It makes great scaffolding too! [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdpUzxlL8sE
wat (Score:2)
"For many years, bamboo has been mostly known as the favourite food of giant pandas"
Tell us you're a five year old westerner without telling us.
"Bamboo ready" (Score:2)
The Professor: "At last, my hour has come!"
Low grade carbon fiber... (Score:2)
In some ways, one could look at bamboo as low grade carbon fiber when used with a resin binder.
Re: (Score:2)
It literally grows like weeds. There is plenty of bamboo growing outside of Asia, and the maintenance for it is leave it alone.
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I do believe China claims ownership of all of the worlds pandas, both red and traditional black and white. I am quite sure they'd work out some attractive lease terms.
Re: (Score:3)
It has spread as an invasive species in many places. Here in Georgia, it's almost as bad as the Kudzu.
It grows very fast in a wide variety of conditions and is damn near impossible to stop. Containing it requires burying several feet of steel plating.