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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Yassin El-Moudden

Schools, airports, high-rise towers: architects urged to get ‘bamboo-ready’

Interior of Kempegowda international airport's Terminal 2 with bamboo lattice ceiling
Terminal 2 of Kempegowda international airport in India has a bamboo ceiling and pillars. Photograph: MOSO Bamboo

An airport made of bamboo? A tower reaching 20 metres high? For many years, bamboo has been mostly known as the favourite food of giant pandas, but a group of engineers say it’s time we took it seriously as a building material, too.

This week the Institution of Structural Engineers called for architects to be “bamboo-ready” as they published a manual for designing permanent buildings made of the material, in an effort to encourage low-carbon construction and position bamboo as a proper alternative to steel and concrete.

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