Use of bamboo in construction

• Main Author: Quek, Ming Hui.
• Other Authors: Chiew Sing Ping
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Environmental engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/16312
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

For the past 45 years, the world population has increase drastically from 1.90 billion in 1955 to 62 billion in 2000. It is estimated that by 2010 the population will reach 7 billion. Over 50% of the world’s population is contributed by developing countries. This leads to a lack of proper housing. In addition, the unexpected occurrences of natural disaster have lead to a demand in rapid deployed low cost housing. Access to safe and healthy shelter is essential to a person, for it is a fundamental need. Currently, at least one billion people do not have access to safe and healthy shelter and the number will continue to increase if no appropriate action is taken. In collaboration with Lien Institute for Environment (LIFE), this project aims to address the issues of people accessing to safe and healthy shelter. In order to keep in pace with the growing population, it is important to develop and promote the use of a low cost housing through adopting an acceptable construction technologies and techniques that can be deployed in the developing countries. In this report, a literature review about bamboo as a construction material and the process in creating the conceptual design of a bamboo house has been documented. The conceptual designs of the house will be to create a stable self-sustainable and yet rapid to construct shelter that provides for basic human needs. As part of the dual project, the focus of this report will be on the architectural design of the house. In addition, the detailed procedure in building the floor, wall and roof panels will also be discussed. Considering the limitation in advanced technologies and resources in the developing countries, it is challenging to design a bamboo house which is safe, durable and rapid to construct. One approach is to make construction methodology for both the wall and floor panels the same. Beside bamboo as the construction material, other materials used were ply wood and jute rope which has a minimal impact on the environment. As part of the main feature of the bamboo house designed, the cost of construction is further reduced as the usage of cement has been minimized. In the building of the roof panels, the use of cement was omitted. This reduction in usage of cement further reduces the cost of the house and it did not sacrifice the durability of the house. Rain protection test was conducted on the roof structure to test the feasibility of the design. Upon conducting the test, it was observed that the design is practicable with no water leaking through the roof. Due to the need of a hygienic environment to live in, further recommendations were provided to improve on the living condition of the people and the durability of the house.