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Bamboo architecture in Ecuador. (Courtesy Katie Dixon) |
| Bamboo makes good sense for many reasons, not the least of which
is its natural beauty. by Katie Dixon Bamboo has been used as a basic construction material in the tropics for centuries. Unfortunately, because it is abundant, practical, and cheap, it has long been a material reserved for the poor. But now, in a small town called Puerto Rico on the coast of Ecuador, architect Rafael Rojas García is steadily churning out some of the finest examples of innovative bamboo architecture in South America, and his paradisical designs are inspiring a new respect for the material. Rojas has been working in the isolated area for five years, designing bamboo projects and training local crews to build them. His most ambitious building to date is a 3,200-square-foot chapel, which may be the first all-bamboo church in the Americas when it is completed later this year. He was hired by a group of ecologically conscious, independent-minded Ecuadorians, who founded the Corporacion Amingay to promote bamboo buildings as an alternative to the concrete bunker-style boxes that have come to represent modernization and status in the region. The organization funds experiments in architecture, organic farming, composting, recycling, and conservation of bamboo in surrounding communities. In the hands of the Colombian-born and -trained Rojas, common knowledge about bamboo construction techniques yields fanciful and almost ethereal results. Rojas's designs string stalks of bamboo into spindly, open-air geometrical structures that seem to defy gravity. Poured-concrete footings are used as support members because the bamboo will rot if it is embedded in the ground. The concrete, however, plays no stabilizing role; the bamboo merely rests on the bases. Joints are pegged with iron screws crafted out of rebar, which hold the stalks in place but receive no stress. Bamboo makes good sense for many reasons, not the least of which is its natural beauty. Replanting is unnecessary because each root supports as many as eight stalks; when one is cut, another grows in its place within three years. Cared for properly, bamboo forests, or guaduales, can be maintained as a resource for generations. And next to squadrons of cement-box casitas--their paint jobs peeling in the equatorial sun--Rojas's designs offer hope for the rejuvenation of this elegant and resilient material. Eco-architecture has never looked so good. |
Keywords:
bamboo, South America, building
