Booming Bamboo explores the most innovative applications of bamboo in architecture and design.

The building industry has a huge impact on the environment, both in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and resource consumption. It therefore requires a major transition towards more circular and climate-proof building practices. A key piece of the puzzle may come from an unexpected corner: mass timber systems.

The latest generation of timber products enable complete multi storey neighbourhoods to be built from sustainably sourced softwood.
This chapter explores how a large-scale transition to timber building in urban environments could contribute to solving the three major global crises we are currently facing with climate, natural resources, and health. If key external determinants are used to set the right preconditions, by 2030, the combined forestry and construction sectors in Europe could mitigate23 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions and provide sufficient timber to sustainably meet housing demand in Europe while contributing significantly to the well-being of urban citizens.

Gezien de nijpende klimaatverandering en de grote milieu-impact van de bouw is het urgenter dan ooit om onze bouwpraktijk grondig te herzien. Een deel van de oplossing komt wellicht uit onverwachte hoek, namelijk grootschalige toepassing van hout....

De toepassingsmogelijkheden van hout in de bouw lijken oneindig en nog altijd volgen technologische ontwikkelingen elkaar in rap tempo op. Als ‘De Houtbouw Revolutie’ íets leert, dan is het dat bouwen met hout de toekomst heeft. Het boek behandelt op aantrekkelijke wijze de vele toepassingsmogelijkheden van dit duurzame bouwmateriaal, met name op het gebied van nieuwe bouwsystemen op basis van massiefhout- producten als Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) en Glued Laminated Timber (Glulam). Dankzij deze ontwikkelingen is hout inmiddels een serieuze vervanger van beton en staal in de bouw.

INBAR (International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation) Working Paper. This policy brief provides an introduction to how bamboo forestry projects can be integrated into carbon markets.

In Tomorrow’s Timber, new timber innovations are explored, including the materials, products, elements and complete building systems, providing context for this emerging shift in design and construction. Inspiring case studies worldwide show that the mass timber revolution is happening as we speak. Tomorrow’s Timber contextualizes the challenges and how forests and mass timber can help solve our global problems by mitigating climate change while supporting the move to a less resource dependent, circular bio-based economy. Finally, the book tackles real mass timber design opportunities and challenges on building and site level, before providing a promising outlook towards the future.

In short, bamboo offers an available, scaleable circular solution to current, linear models of production and consumption. This report should provide policy makers, donors and business investors with a greater understanding of bamboo’s huge potential in the circular economy.

Given the increasing scarcity of resources, a transition from the traditional linear “make-take-waste” production scenario to a circular model is essential to be able to meet the needs of future generations. In the circular economy concept1 products are designed in such a way that their components fit as nutrients in either the biological cycle – biodegradable after use, recycled, and regrown by nature itself – or the technical cycle of industrial non-renewable materials whose finite stocks need to be secured by high-level recycling.

This study assesses the carbon sequestration potential through the increased use of industrial bamboo materials in the Western building industry, to better understand how engineered bamboo compares with commonly used building materials such as tropical hardwood. The first objective of this study is to measure the environmental impact of industrial bamboo products and its production process in terms of their CO2 equivalent (carbon footprint). The second objective of this paper is to clarify how carbon sequestration on a global scale, including in bamboo forests and plantations, can be defined and calculated for industrial bamboo products, and how they can be incorporated in the standard carbon footprint calculations. The study concludes that industrial bamboo products, if based on best-practice technology (production chain of MOSO International BV), even when used in Europe, can be CO2 negative over their full life cycle.

In the global climate agreements made during COP 21 in Paris, the role of forests and wood products have gained more attention considering their important impact – both negative and positive – through deforestation, forest conservation, afforestation and increasing application of wood in durable (construction) products acting as carbon sink. A promising route enabling legally and sustainably sourced non-durable temperate wood species to be used in high performance applications is through large scale non-toxic wood modification, of which acetylation is one of the leading methods. Acetylation has proven to enhance the resistance against fungal decay and dimensional stability of wood such that on commercially base two heavy load-bearing traffic bridges have been constructed. In this paper a cradle-to-grave assessment is executed to compare the environmental impact of acetylated Scots pine, tropical hardwood (Azobe) and non-renewable materials (steel, concrete) with the bearing structure of a typical pedestrian bridge as unit of comparison (‘functional unit’) The results show that acetylated wood has a considerably lower carbon footprint than steel, concrete and unsustainably sourced Azobe, and like sustainably sourced Azobe can have CO2 negative LCA results over the full life cycle.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the commonly accepted methodology to systematically assess the environmental impact of a material over the full life cycle, from the extraction of resources until the end phase of demolition or recycling (from cradle till grave).
The first objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of the environmental impact of industrial bamboo products and its production process in terms of their CO2 equivalent (carbon footprint), toxic emissions, and materials depletion (LCA). The LCA in this paper is based on latest (2015) production and bamboo land-use change figures.
The second objective of this paper is to clarify how carbon sequestration on a global scale can be defined and calculated for industrial bamboo products, and how they can be incorporated in the standard LCA calculations.
The study concludes that industrial bamboo products, if based on best-practice technology (production chain of MOSO International BV), even when used in Europe, are CO2 negative over their full life cycle.