Increasing the use of bamboo will intensify local bamboo plantation and thereby the purification of the air and filtration of the soil. New ways of using bamboo in Indonesian kampungs will uplift the image of bamboo as a ‘poor mans building material’ towards a ‘sustainable self-building material’. Integrating the use of bamboo with the tendency of self-building might improve craftsmanship and thereby the economic and environmental situation of kampung residents.