Advisory Center for Affordable Settlements & Housing

Document Download Download
Document Type General
Publish Date 09/01/2020
Author ATAMEWAN, Eugene Ehimatie
Published By Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria
Edited By Suneela Farooqi
Uncategorized

Use of Bamboo for Sustainable Housing Construction in Developing Countries

The use of bamboo as a sustainable building material combined with other material like mud to produce houses and also provide the concepts of the modern use of bamboo in all aspects of building and change of perception on the use of locally available materials for building construction. Most of the low-income group are able to build their houses through the use of bamboo at a reduced cost. It is true that the use of bamboo for the construction of houses is not new in the past it served as one of the dominant building materials for the construction of traditional houses. The recent fight against global warming arising from the depletion of the ozone layer has placed restrictions on timber felling around the world, hence the recent search for alternatives to timber as a building material.

Bamboo is a more versatile, economical, and readily available material is now the world’s alternative construction material to timber. The use of bamboo as a building material has undergone some industrial revolution, thereby increasing its applicability not just in building construction alone but in other areas such as light bulb manufacturing, toy making. The strength and flexibility of bamboo as a property coupled with the strength-weight ratio advantage gives bamboo its resilience against high-velocity wind forces thereby making bamboo a suitable material for building construction that can withstand earthquakes and hurricanes (Bureau of Indian Standards [BIS], 2005).

The study recommends advocacy enlightenment by government agencies on the benefits and application of bamboo in construction, change of orientation/perception on the use of locally available materials by all for building construction. Also, the use of modern methods of building houses completely with bamboo and its by-products is missing in the case study area due to a lack of technological know-how. Hence, the training of professionals and artisans on the modern use of bamboo in all aspects of building construction is highly recommended.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *