G8-2012 Structural Bamboo Products

This project develops green construction materials and building codes for bamboo. China, India and Brazil have
rapidly expanding economies with increasing demand for building materials. The production of conventional
construction materials such as steel and concrete is energy intensive and unsustainable: concrete alone accounts for
5% of global CO2 emissions. Bamboo is a fast growing, renewable building material widely cultivated in these
countries but not utilized to its full potential in modern construction. Its mechanical properties are similar to wood
but it produces up to six times as much mass per hectare as conventional timber plantations. Structural bamboo
products (SBP), similar to plywood, oriented strand board, or glue-laminated wood products, therefore have
enormous potential to partially replace the use of more energy intensive materials in rapidly developing countries.
Widespread use of SBP is hampered by limited knowledge of their manufacture, structural and thermal behavior,
and lack of appropriate building codes. The goal of this project is to develop modern structural building materials
from renewable bamboo in order to place growth in rapidly developing countries onto a more sustainable path.
Low-carbon solutions can also help to meet developed countries' own obligations under schemes like the UK's
Carbon Reduction Commitment.

Academic impact
Our research will contribute significantly to the knowledge base and use of engineered bamboo, including its environmental and economic impact. Our results will inform colleagues working in similar areas, and advance the development and application of structural bamboo products. INBAR (International Network for Bamboo and Rattan) and other international bamboo organizations will benefit from this work, as we will also benefit from their on-going work. The growing interest in bamboo has the potential to link UBC, MIT and CU with other colleagues and universities in the developing world working on similar projects (e.g. China, Brazil and India). These linkages can have significant benefits for all parties.

Sustainable building materials
A major focus of the project is to enhance sustainability of building products, by the development of a lower-carbon alternative to conventional structural elements. Project impact could thus extend to a global scale. It will play a part in the achievement of low carbon goals both in less developed countries and the developed world. In China, for example, it would contribute to meeting provincial and national targets on carbon reduction that will soon be subject to a planned emission-trading scheme. In Europe, it could be proposed immediately as a candidate for carbon reduction credits in the Emissions Trading Scheme.

The structural bamboo products and codes we develop will be a viable alternative to steel and concrete members for many situations, with lower embodied carbon. Furthermore, building designs incorporating these elements will have low operating energy use, and thus emit lower levels of carbon throughout their lives. We believe the potential impact of this project to be significant, and welcome the opportunity to demonstrate this.

Commercial manufacturing
We plan to work closely with bamboo manufacturers, such as Dasso, to improve the applicability of their product to the design and construction market and to help them understand the energy inputs to their product, and where possible to identify savings. If the potential of structural bamboo is realized, the market impact could be significant. We plan to visit Dasso in China and invite them to come to project workshops to engage with our research while it is ongoing. The China Children's and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) demonstration projects will have great potential for showcasing their ability to produce new and better building materials.

Policy through building codes
This project aims to expand and extend the initial International Bamboo Building Code ISO 22156:2004 to have relevant coverage of structural bamboo products. Our development and dissemination of this will be in cooperation with INBAR, with which we already have contact, and directly with policy-makers in China during our final year workshop. The Architecture Department at CU has strong links to sister departments in China, particularly at Tsinghua and Chongqing Universities, with whom we would work to get appropriate conversations with Chinese policy and construction ministries.

Engagement with local community (China & International Network for Bamboo and Rattan)
Our pathway in this area has two components:
(1) Engagement with direct end-users of the technology, including a local bamboo product manufacturer (Dasso China) and demonstration building owner and operator China (CCTF).
(2) Engagement with wider community of potential building product users through INBAR, and beneficiaries of widened employment opportunities in bamboo producing regions of China.
We will work with these groups throughout the project, but we will engage particularly in an early trip to China (first half of year 1). The personal contacts Ramage and Mulligan already have at Dasso and CCTF, and new ones we make at that point will continue to influence the direction and relevance of our work.