Bamboo Bungalows

[JJReyes]

Bamboo Living, a Hawaii company designs and sells bamboo bungalows manufactured in Vietnam. The kits are shipped anywhere in the world and assembled on-site. The ground is prepared prior to the arrival of the container. Assembly takes 3 to 5 days with a trained crew.

Bamboo Living bungalows are very expensive. For the Philippines, we are in communication with Buglas Bamboo Institute. This is a Holland based non-government organization (NGO) that built a bamboo furniture factory in Negros Oriental. The institute has manufactured several one bedroom bamboo homes for a proposed pro-poor housing project. I am also in communication with an expert in bamboo building here in Hawaii who at one time was part of the Bamboo Living group.

My thinking is a nice size, comfortable, one bedroom bamboo bungalow sold as a kit in the Philippines. The eco-friendly treatment makes the bamboo durable and fire resistant. It also makes the bamboo wood resistant to termites and wood-boring insects. A metal binder system permits the bamboo poles to flex during high winds and earthquakes. Philippine manufacturing would cut the price to one-third or more compared to buying kits from Vietnam for import to the Philippines.

It might also be possible to disassemble the bamboo bungalows. Should you ever quarrel with the landowner (wife or her family), hire workers and a couple of trucks to take your home elsewhere.

What do you think?

Bamboo Living Bali 566.pdf

Bamboo Living Pacific 612.pdf

Bamboo Living Polynesian 1294.pdf

Bamboo Living Villa 2745.pdf

Edited January 11, 2013 by JJR

[i am bob]

I am surprised that nobody is doing Bamboo homes in the Philippines on a full time scale. It has the warmth and richness of wood yet is strong enough to withstand the typhoons and earthquakes associated with the Philippines. I myself love it and, someday when I finally look at owning, will try to find some way to make this an integral part of my home.

[Jack Peterson]

I am surprised that nobody is doing Bamboo homes in the Philippines on a full time scale.

I can only Speak for Negros Oriental and Dumaguete in particular. We had a meeting about Bamboo 2 years ago, with the City Engineer. Bamboo or Wood framed houses are frowned on for main dwellings and plans would never get passed if presented. There main issue was fire risk and flooding. I have read JJR's downloads and now take what the Engineers tell me, with a pinch of salt.

I have sent the downloads to my Engineer, who tells me, that the City is still anti Wood of any type for a main Dwelling.

Bamboo would have been a good idea, and from JJ's post most attractive. BUT not to be, on this island. Weekend homes or lodges OK. but Main Dwellings a big no, no, for Dumaguete.

:tiphat:

[Markham]

Go to downtown Davao and hidden away in a side street you'll find several timber-built houses that were built before WW2 and are still occupied.

Filipinos are wedded to concrete and steel homes which are, of course, expensive to keep cool. Timber and Bamboo have a far higher "R Factor" - meaning they're rubbish by comparison as insulants - but houses built with either are far better suited to the conditions here - including earthquakes. If timber-framed houses are such a fire risk then a good percentage of all houses built in the UK over the last 25 years or so should be uninsurable - but of course they're not!

My father, who qualified as a civil engineer at the outbreak of WW2, spent the war building bridges and harbours under Montgomery's command (both in the Middle East and later in Europe). After the war, he worked for APCM, which Brits here may remember as "Blue Circle Cement" and he built and commissioned cement factories in Malaya, Thailand and Indonesia for APCM's Far Eastern subsidiary, "Tiger Cement". His first works in Malaya, at Rawang a few miles north of the capital, had a Kampong (compound) for European managers and staff whose houses were all constructed from Bamboo and very nice they were too. We lived in one and it was still standing - and occupied - some thirty years later when he and I revisited the plant shortly before his death.

[Jollygoodfellow]

Whats the difference between a Nipa hut and a bamboo home? :e3358:

[JJReyes]

Whats the difference between a Nipa hut and a bamboo home?

Nipa refers to coconut palm leaves, one of several possible roofing materials. The others are cogon grass and anahaw leaves. The attached photo is anahaw leaves. The builder will use fishing net to hold the leaves down. Bamboo home means the primary material is bamboo instead of wood or hollow blocks or poured concrete.

After WWII, there were all these American factories manufacturing Quonset huts for the military. One of the post WWII reconstruction materials used was corrugated metal sheets, which remains popular in the Philippines to this day. It provided American employment and kept the factories running. If you look at the Quonset huts, they require heavy coats of paint. They are still in use today. Philippine middle class and poorer families use corrugated metal. They start to rust without proper maintenance. They are very hot under the tropical sun. They don't use hurricane clips. During major typhoons, those metal sheets are blown away. They are like meat slicers. Animal and human beings are cut in half.

If you look at homes for the upper middle class and wealthier families, they have switched to tiled roofs.

[JJReyes]

I can only Speak for Negros Oriental and Dumaguete in particular. We had a meeting about Bamboo 2 years ago, with the City Engineer. Bamboo or Wood framed houses are frowned on for main dwellings and plans would never get passed if presented. There main issue was fire risk and flooding. I have read JJR's downloads and now take what the Engineers tell me, with a pinch of salt.

Interesting. The factory we will be using is in Negros Oriental and not too far from Dumaguete. The non-government agency (NGO) from Holland selected the area because Negros Oriental has lots of bamboo. The factory started as quality bamboo furniture for export to Europe. Bamboo houses were later added as a pro-poor project.

The City Engineer is correct about the fire risk. Per attached photographs, the traditional material used is untreated green bamboo. The termites move-in before the family and after the bamboo dries, it is a fire hazzard. I don't understand the flooding concern. Bamboo homes can been raised several feet from the ground if flooding is a concern. If you build a beach or oceanfront home in Hawaii, it has to be 14 feet above high tide. If the ground is near sea level, the house has to be on stilts. Older homes are grandfathered. (I hope this is what they are planning for the New York and New Jersey coastline. Otherwise, the taxpayers have to spend another $60 to $100 billion when the next big storm hits.)

The City Engineer is not aware properly treated bamboo is fire retardant. If Dumaguete has strict fire codes, can you imagine the fire codes for places like California, Hawaii and Texas? Once these factory build bamboo homes gain popularity, city ordnances will probably have to be amended.

[Whitty]

Hi, I like the idea of using treated bamboo as a building material in the Philippines .The Bamboo Living Villa appeals  to me . I am interested to find out more about it . 

[JJReyes]

Hi, I like the idea of using treated bamboo as a building material in the Philippines .The Bamboo Living Villa appeals to me . I am interested to find out more about it .

 

Our group's bamboo expert is in Cebu at the moment and he will also visit Negros Oriental. He returns to Hawaii in mid-March. If he believes the project is doable, the next step is to start designing one and two bedroom bungalows. The price target is below $20,000 or P800,000. That includes manufacturing at a factory, shipping, assembly, and water, electricity and sewage.connection. Land is separate.

 

The Bamboo Living models are excellent, but they are too expensive. Their manufacturing factory is in Vietnam. Our expert at one time was a member of the Bamboo Living group, but he learned the craft of building with bamboo from a famous architect in Columbia. Another good example in the use of bamboo is an international school in Bali, Indonesia. The website is www.greenschool.org.   

Edited February 24, 2013 by JJReyes

[Curley]

Hi, I like the idea of using treated bamboo as a building material in the Philippines .The Bamboo Living Villa appeals  to me . I am interested to find out more about it . 

 

 

Check out earth bag building, far cheaper, longer lasting, earthquake and typhoon resistance far higher.