AmericanBamboo.org information on Bamboo

Animal Forage

http://www.fao.org/ag/aga/agap/frg/AFRIS/tree/Common.htm presents information about the food value of many crops, including bamboo. When you make a selection from the drop-down box, you'll notice that there are many entries for bamboo. They are for different varieties so you'll just have to look at each one. I noticed one of the "bamboo grass" entries was not actually a bamboo, though.

Arts and Crafts

Fly Rods

Check out Bamboo Fly Rod Magazine.

Ron Blauvelt makes equipment for making bamboo fly rods.

Thomas Penrose provides instructions for making your own rods.

Charles H. Demarest Inc., a major supplier of Tonkin cane for fly rod manufacture, has a home page. The opening page also has a brief bibliography of books written about bamboo fly rods. 

Keone Rodsmiths make bamboo fly rods of several different types. The site was developed by people who are deeply into bamboo fly rods.

Pens

Have you ever tried making a pen from bamboo? Ward Dunham has put together a photo essay on slicing bamboo to make a pen.

Furniture

Look on the Commercial Messages page for a list of furniture makers.

Baskets, Vases, Woven Items

Fish Traps and Related Uses:

Fishing in Many Waters
James Hornell, Cambridge University Press, 1950.

Bamboo Baskets, Maggie Oster
Viking Studio Books, New York, 1995

Yarn - Habu Textiles carries yarn spun from bamboo fibers. The yarn is made by a process similar to the way rayon is made. Have a look at the Habu Web site or contact them via email for more information.

South West Trading Company has bamboo yarn suitable for spinning. Click on the paragraph beginning "How is Soy Silk™ made?" for a bit more information.

Sculptures

Steven Glassman builds bridges out of bamboo.

Stephen Glassman

703 Palms Blvd.

Venice, California 90291

Tel: 310 305 1696

fax: 310 578 5189

Stephen’s Bridge in Bali

Omer Kursat is an artist working with bamboo and reeds to create unique pieces which he calls “Artifacts of a One-man Tribe.”

Japan

This is very nice web page with basketry, fishing rods, window blinds and such traditional crafts from Japan.

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Bicycles

Yes, people are making bicycles out of bamboo. Here’s the story from Denmark. Unfortunately, the contact information we had for these people who made bamboo bicycles leads nowhere anymore.

And, Austrian bamboo bicycles.
Back in the "good old days" bicycle
wheels were sometimes made of laminated bamboo.

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Boat building

Kayaks, Sailing Rafts, Sailing Boats, the Proa

TUBS Marine of Angeles City, Philippines, has built hybrid (with steel) bamboo boats and bamboo fishing sleds. There are diagrams of the construction details and photos of some of what they make.

Craig O’Donnell (who calls himself a “Junkomologist, Professor of Boatology and Bamboo Constructivist”) has collected information about bamboo boats, including the “proa,” an outrigger canoe with parts made from bamboo: visit his Proa FAQ.

Craig’s Cheap Pages feature three other bamboo boats -- Fridtjof Nansen’s 1894 bamboo-and-fabric Arctic exploring kayak, the Vietnamese basket-boat with a hull of woven bamboo, and the Chinese Tray Boat, or bamboo ocean sailing raft.

Books and Papers:

These are some of the more readily-obtainable books covering nautical applications for bamboo.

Tim Severin’s The China Voyage:
Video and book about a sixty-foot bamboo raft journey from Hong Kong most of the way across the Pacific.

Blue Book of Coastal Vessels of Vietnam

US Dept. of Defense, 1960, and 1968(?)
Most photos are somewhat grainy but there’s more in one place about basket boats than anywhere else. There is also a “Green Book” which covers much the same material.

The Wind Commands
by Harry Morton.
Wesleyan University Press, 1975.
The first part of the book covers early Pacific craft in great detail and there’s much incidental information about bamboo.

Seagoing Rafts

A seagoing bamboo raft of Taiwan, somewhere around 40 feet long.

The man: Fridtjof Nansen. The year: 1895. The place: the Arctic. Two bamboo kayaks lashed together as a Catamaran. The mast and the yard of the sail are bamboo poles.

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Construction

INBAR in Beijing has published an annotated bibliography, “Bamboo as an Engineering Material” covering:

Physical and mechanical properties

Preservation

Application in buildings - there's also a Web page with some information about bamboo housing

Structural reinforcement

Panel Products

Geo-technical applications

Hydraulic applications

Bibliography and handbooks

For information about INBAR’s publications see their Information Portal page and click on “Products and Applications.”

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Bamboo fibers are used to strengthen composite materials.

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The United Nations Industrial Development Organization has a number of publications about bamboo construction and furniture building.

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The University Aachen in Germany has a project researching the use of bamboo construction. They have produced somesamples of construction techniques and documentation of bamboo's mechanical properties, kinds of connectors and techniques.

Christoph Tönges, one of the members of the project, has a nicely-done Web site with interesting close-up images of
bamboo construction techniques. There are also photos of interesting
bamboo buildings designed by Jörg Stamm, and a church by Simón Vélez.

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Tang Y. Yang, a student in the Architecture Department at the University of Utah has some general information promoting bamboo as a building material. In particular, there are some nice photos. This is part of a larger set of pages called a Toolkit for Sustainable Development.

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Michael McDonough an architect, with Linda Garland of the Environment Bamboo Foundation,started the Bamboo Research Initiative at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island. He has some Web pages about using laminated bamboo in architecture, bridge building and furniture.

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Bamutec of Germany apparently sells specialized tools they've developed for bamboo joinery.

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Books by Dr. Jules Janssen

Building with Bamboo by Jules J.A. Janssen

London: Intermediate Technology Publications

2nd ed. 1995. ISBN 1853392030

Mechanical Properties of Bamboo by JA Janssen

Kluwer Academic Pub., 1991. ISBN 0792312600

Dr. Janssen also has a Web site at the Eindhoven University of Technology. The research described at this site is aimed at developing, improving, and analyzing bamboo structures for lower income groups in developing countries.

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Bamboo Architecture and Construction with Oscar Hidalgo

Sr. Hidalgo has published an overview of the things that must be taken into consideration when building with bamboo.This is provided by the Natural Building Colloquium Southwest.

Geodesic domes

Build one yourself #1

Software to help you design your dome

Outline Plan for a Geodesic Dome Class

General geodesic dome links

Sources of starplates for dome construction - Stromberg's Chickens and in New Zealand - Avon Electric. During the 1995 ABS annual conference in Savannah, Georgia a dome was build using starplates.

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Bamboo Fencing

David Flanagan, TheBamboo Fencer, now has a Web page full of information about bamboo fencing.

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Bamboo as Reinforcing Bar

This page has some information about the strength of bamboo rebar.
It was a surprise to find this report by the U.S. Navy, Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Construction (February 1966, U. S. Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory, Port Hueneme, California).

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General

Information on sustainable agriculture.

A book of books:

Bamboo Architecture: A Selected Bibliography

ISBN: 0792005740

Publish Date: July 1990

Author: Anthony G. White

Binding: Hardcover

List Price: USD 8.00

According to Amazon Books it’s hard to find.

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Erosion Control and Water Treatment

The US Department of Agriculture apparently studied bamboo as an erosion control plant and found it very successful. Unfortunately the original papers from USDA bamboo research are very hard to find. The bibliographies on the ABS pages contain titles. The Bookstore has some of these titles available. Maybe some of the more obscure studies can find their way online some day.
Ecological Engineering gray
water treatment.

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Traditional Chinese Medicine

Melanie Arcudi serves on the board of the International Bamboo Foundation on Maui.
She is a professor of Oriental Medicine, a licensed acupuncturist and uses bamboo in many formulas of traditional Chinese medicine. She also has information on the Indonesian uses for bamboo. Visit the web page.

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Musical Instruments

Way-Out

Richard Waters designs, makes, plays and markets musical instruments, sound devices, and sonic sculptures. His web page is: http://www.waterphone.com/

Flutes

Shakuhachi

Peter Ross of Cloud Hands Music makes bamboo shakuhachi flutes, teaches and give performances. Please visit his Web site for more information.

Jeff Whittier makes bamboo flutes: Indian flutes called bansuri. The Ali Akbar College of Music sells his flutes. See this Web site.

Rod Baird makes bamboo flutes, both traditional Japanese style and western side-blown style.

Chris Harazda (e-mail: harazda@mhv.net)
makes Japanese “hotchiku” flutes, which are very similar to “shakuhachi” flutes.

Monty H. Levenson has a web page for his Tai Hei Shakuhachi Flutes. It includes a little information about the history of these flutes.

Lark in the Morning has a web page describing the musical instruments they sell, including bamboo flutes and digiridoos.

Ken LaCosse - produces shakuhachi flutes and has a Web site here.

Mark Shepard has a very useful-looking site describing how to make and play bamboo flutes.

"Anubodh" makes classical bansuri bamboo flutes. He has a nicely-designed Web site with information about this history, making and care of bansuri flutes. He will also custom-make flutes to your specifications.

Other Instruments

Lark in the Morning: is also the place to buy an angklung, an Indonesian percussion instrument consisting of tuned bamboo tubes hung from a frame.
Black Swamp Percussion makes bamboo timpani mallets.

Bamboo

Since zynorique has been actively involved with bamboo construction and related issue..I guess i will use this page as a resource center for Bamboo Related Topics.

rix

Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Construction

Role of plants in landslide protection

Shri Ram Newpane
Steep hills and mountains characterize approximately 86 percent of the Nepalese area. Elevation ranges from 60 m to 8,848 m (Mount Everest) within a radius of less than 200 km. The country comprises five distinct physiographic regions: the High Himalayas (23.7 percent of the total area), the High Mountains (19.7 percent), the Middle Mountains (29.5 percent), the Siwalik (12.7 percent) and the Terai (14.4 percent), (LRMP, 1986). Due to the presence of steep hills and mountains, frequently occurring erosion and landslides cause instability in slope. The rate of natural erosion in the geologically young and seismically active mountains is high. Laban (1979) estimated that approximately 74 percent of landslides occur under natural conditions and 26 percent of the occurring landslides in Nepal are caused by human activity. Landslides occur in Nepal due to toe cutting of the slope, deforestation in hills and mountains, intensive use of land resource for agriculture, grazing and fuel wood and development of infrastructure such as roads, without adequate conservation measures, and soil mass saturated with water.Control of slope instability caused by severe landslide and erosion usually requires the engineering of structures. However, structural measures involve high investment and a high degree of technology. When vegetative measures are combined with engineering measures, the end result can be effective for landslide protection and dramatic reduction of surface erosion, at relatively low cost and ensuring high sustainability. Bioengineering control measures have been observed in Nepal to be economically desirable and most effective for erosion control in degraded areas. Hence, planting local grasses, shrubs and trees becomes the successful use of vegetation along with engineering structures to increase slope stability against shallow landslide and to protect almost all slopes against erosion. On small sites, bioengineering techniques alone may be adequate. However, bioengineering is closely integrated with civil engineering structures.
The department of roads, through several donor-assisted projects had conducted experiments on bioengineering case studies in the history of Nepal such as:

a) Dharan-Dhankuta road (1988): A complicated failure occurred at certain portion of that road. Vegetative solutions along with engineering structures are applied there which provide support by planting bamboos above toe wall; seeding Khanyu, siris and tanki on all fill and loose debris areas; planting grass sito on critical sections of the middle slope; seeding grasses phurke, Bhujetro and sito at the upper section.

b) Dhankuta-Hile road (1990): An unstable slope in weak, deeply weathered gneiss was disturbed by road construction. Along with engineering structures, as a vegetative solution various plants such as asuro, amliso, simali, phurke, utis, large bamboos, kans, areri and keraukose were planted. Similarly, Amliso grass is planted at Phurke Khola on the Prithvi Highway, 67 km from Kathmandu and in Gajuri which is 73 km from Kathmandu. Asuro is planted at Kurintar on the Prithvi Highway and from Phisling to Benighat. Other examples are Jogbani-Dharan road (1991) and Baglung loop (1997). (Roadside bioengineering, reference manual, DOR). In the year 1991 to 1995 Dhading Development Project DDP/GTZ has widely planted Simali shrub at Dhading Besi-Salyantar road. An example of the ongoing project is DDC/GTZ, where Simali is planted in Tumlingtar-Chhyangkuti road in Sankhuwasabha District.

Vegetation greatly affects shallow soil mass stability mainly by increasing the shear strength of soil via root reinforcement. One major factor responsible for landslide is the role of roots. Roots mechanically reinforce a soil by transfer of shear stress in the soil to tensile resistance in the roots. Increase in soil shear strength due to root reinforcement is directly proportional to root tensile strength, root diameter and root density. Wide variations in the tensile strength of roots depend on species and on site; factors such as growing environment, season, root diameter and orientation. Roots of any deep penetrating vegetation (i.e. grass, shrub and tree) will increase the stability of the soil because all plant root systems hold the soil together. As explained earlier, Nepal is practicing roadside bioengineering from last two decades. Thus the prime attention should be given to an analytical study of some extensively used and abundantly available local grass and shrubs.

Nepal has been experiencing the use of grass and shrubs since the last two decades in roadside bioengineering. Various grasses, shrubs and trees have been used as bioengineering technique by different organizations on a number of highway slopes in Nepal. As far as roadside bio-engineering is concerned, the Department of Roads, HMG has published site handbook on various bio-engineering techniques in detail, covering planted grass lines, brush layers, palisades, live check dams, fascines and vegetated stone pitching walls, large bamboo planting, turfing, site seeding and planting grass, shrubs, small trees, large trees, their spacing and plant growing techniques etc. But it, however, does not cover the analytical part of root strength and root distribution and how it affects in landslide protection. Similarly, no literature concerning the experimental analysis of the strength of various grasses and shrubs roots, their root distribution, increase in soil shear strength due to root reinforcement and suitability of different grasses, shrubs for different soil and climatic condition were found in the Nepali context. Thus an attempt should be made to enhance the experimental analysis of mechanical properties of root. So it is high time for the study of mechanical properties of roots, their role in landslide protection in the context of rapid development of roadside bioengineering technology nationwide as well as worldwide. Considering the above facts a study is needed on an experimental analysis of strength of local grass and shrubs roots widely used for landslide protection in Nepal.

Zynorique's Portfolio 2005

These are some of our Live Projects at the Moment..

Zynorique - Another Time Zone

It's been a long time since I posted anything here..in fact we were shortstaffed for quite a while, now zynorique has 6 architects..i hope with a bit of luck, i should get some more assistance on the webpage. Atuo is fine, kenei too...Noto is the inspired one, bubu is as efficient as ever..kevi also contributes her share. I hope by October we can have a facelift for www.zynorique.com.
do keep dropping in..got some very interesting articles lined up.
ric

on a light note

While crossing the mountains of the Yemen to get to the sea, we passed some incredible architecture.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharkbait

Architectural Snaps

This is another blog for posting Architectural Snaps. Enjoy. Click Here