We all know that we are well and truly in the middle of a climate crisis which could end life on earth. You may think of cows, planes, cars, or plastic when thinking about climate change, but what a lot of people forget is that architecture has a bigger impact on climate change than possibly all of these; it uses up space, materials, fuel, and many other things. Therefore, if architecture improves for the better, then a lot will follow. In Bali, the architect Elora Hardy is working with nature to help heal itself, and she is doing this, along with her team, by making buildings which are made from nature, not made against it.
The material which is helping them do this is bamboo. Bamboo is an incredibly versatile and strong wood, which grows very quickly. It used to be called ‘poor man’s timber’ because it is cheaper and more accessible. I think it should be called ‘every man’s timber’.
Bamboo has allowed Elora and her team to make their vision a reality – it acts as the walls, roof, and structure of the building. Not only that, but bamboo is used for all the interiors as well, the chairs lamps etc. Also, it is flexible which makes it seem like the whole building is moving, and alive. By using bamboo, it makes the walls textured and lovely to touch, creating a more tactile experience within the building. It was Elora’s genius to use bamboo in the first place, and the genius of bamboo experts and the bamboo itself to bring her vision to life. She has worked together with the bamboo and done what the material naturally wants to do. By working with nature, she has solved all the problems which come with working against it.
You may be reading this and be thinking, ‘well this is great, but it’s only going to work in the rainforest, isn’t it? ‘This is not necessarily true. Bamboo is everywhere and now that you know that you may start noticing it more. The Western World is only just beginning to realise the incredible properties and versatility of bamboo and is finally starting to use it.
Now, making buildings out of bamboo does seem like the way forward, but we have to be sensitive to what nature wants. Rather than building every building out of bamboo, we have to learn about the local environment and the natural materials there, so that we can use what nature is clearly telling us to do with it. Nature wants to help us, and it also wants us to help it. Therefore, we have to study what is around us to localise architecture, both in terms of materiality and community. The latter is something which I think is missing a lot in modern day society as a result of architecture being homogenised by the modern, and also the simple fact that transport and communication are so easy. I am not blaming modern architecture for all this because there is an incredible amount to learn from it and it would be foolish not to, but we have noticed that it could be improved, so we have to make the new modern natural, sooner rather than later.
This is not something that only architects can bring about – everyone has the power to make things around them more natural, whether it be their diet, the things they buy or the vehicles they use, but architects have a crucial role in changing the way people live for the better and have the ability to make the whole environment we live in more sympathetic and true and, as a result, happier and more inclusive.
Facts • Balance • Context
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Cloudflare | 1 month | The cookie is used by cdn services like CloudFlare to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not correspond to any user ID in the web application and does not store any personally identifiable information. |
Cloudflare Always Online | This cookie is set by the provider Cloudflare content delivery network. This cookie is used for determining whether it should continue serving "Always Online" until the cookie expires. | |
Cookie Consent | 1 year | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
Login Paywall | 1 month | This cookie keeps track on whether the user is logged in and can view content. |
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Google Analytics: Persistence | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to persist session state. |
Stripe M | 2 years | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any patment information on a server. |
Stripe MID | 1 year | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any payment information on a server. |
Stripe SID | 30 minutes | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any payment information on a server. |
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Google Analytics | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. |
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Amazon Load Balancer for Stockdio | 7 days | AWSALB is a cookie generated by the Application load balancer in the Amazon Web Services. It is used by the Stockdio Stock Ticker. |
Amazon Load Balancer for Stockdio | 7 days | This cookie is used for load balancing services provded by Amazon inorder to optimize the user experience. Amazon has updated the ALB and CLB so that customers can continue to use the CORS request with stickness. It is used by Stockdio Stock Ticker. |
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Google NID | 6 months | NID cookie is a third party cookie automatically placed by Google services. To opt-out please visit https://adssettings.google.co.uk |
These cookies are used by the GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. They only store whether the user has opted in or out of other categories. They do not store any personal data.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Cookie Consent: Analytics | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Analytics". It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie Consent: Necessary | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Necessary". It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie Consent: Others | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Others". It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie Consent: Performance | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Performance". It does not store any personal data. |