Estate Living Magazine Smart Moves - Issue 38 February 2019 | Page 54

G O O D
L I F E
BAMBOO
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Bamboo is one of the world’s oldest natural building
materials. In Asia and South America, where it occurs
naturally, it’s been the building material of choice for
centuries for everything from homes to bridges and
scaffolding. This wonder plant of the past offers a
multitude of options for the contemporary homemaker.
Why bamboo?
Being an extremely fast-growing and easy-to-grow resource,
bamboo has become the sustainable choice for many in the green
revolution. It is an extremely hardy type of grass that grows well
without the need for pesticides and fertilisers and needs little to no
irrigation. Bamboo is exceptionally fast growing, with some species
growing as much as 91cm a day! It’s this phenomenal growth rate
that enables it to be harvested after about 2–3 years, and once
harvested, the bamboo plants regrow, a fact that makes it a far more
sustainable option than wood – and it needs to be harvested by
hand, which contributes to job creation. In a sustainably harvested
forest only 20% of the forest is harvested annually, allowing for a
100% harvest in five years.
It is interesting to note that a bamboo forest will release
approximately 35% more oxygen compared to the equivalent sized
wood forest. It also absorbs carbon from the environment, only
releasing it when it decomposes. So, using bamboo as a long-term
building material, for things like flooring and countertops, means
that the carbon it absorbed is stored safely and not released back
into the environment.
Bamboo has a higher tensile strength than steel, and its elasticity
makes it ideal for earthquake-prone areas; in addition to this, its
lightweight nature makes construction easier, and transporting