Mass Bamboo
Reducing atmospheric carbon is an urgent prerequisite for planet earth to provide moderate temperatures and enough fertile land to accommodate human nourishment and settlement. Yet, the current design of building systems, which are largely made from concrete and steel, are responsible for 11% of total global carbon emissions during their material extraction, manufacture, and construction. This problem is expected to double over the next 30 years as the human population is projected to reach nearly 10 billion people, producing the new need for building stocks of double what they are today. Here we present the start at a Mass Bamboo Building System made from lightly modified bamboo culms. We have been researching and developing the design of a novel carbon-sinking bamboo building method with the goal of storing massive amounts of carbon in a long-lasting construction system for tropical and arid multifamily housing globally.
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Year: 2021
Size: 13ft x 13ft x 13ft
Materials & Methods:
3-axis milled, 4-axis machined, solid painted bamboo
Principal Investigator:
Jonas Hauptman
Student Leads:
Alex Munro & Josie Price
Sponsor:
AIA Upjohn Research Initiative
Photography:
Cat Piper
This project is both a design and a technical experiment for rethinking the aesthetic associations and possibilities for bamboo structures. We are reimagining methods of fabrication via milling and assemblies of semi-solid bamboo elements. It was the first full-scale test designed and built in the VT Bamboo Research Space.
Students and faculty used the column-like structure to explore 4th axis positioning for digital fabrication and the use of a series of analog and digital custom-made tools. With these techniques we can duplicate shape properties via edge captured photographic scanning and process bamboo into specific elements.
The project served as a precursor to symbiotically designed bamboo assemblies where the natural aesthetic and mechanical behavior of this amazing biomaterial can be fully leveraged. A “snap” joint was developed by the undergraduate research assistants which makes fabrication and assembly exciting, but we learned that it does not result in a truly robust structural assembly. Finally, surface finishes were explored by painting with low VOC paint to reskin the otherwise natural unmilled areas of the bamboo. These finishes were 3 hues of red that also codified different elements of the assembly and created a richer aesthetic language within the synthetic skin.
Year: 2020
Size: 4ft x 4ft x 7ft
Materials & Methods:
3-axis milled, 4-axis machined, solid painted bamboo
Principal Investigator:
Jonas Hauptman
Student Leads:
Alex Munro & Mason Millner
Sponsor:
AIA Upjohn Research Initiative
Photography:
Chiravi Patel
