Auroville Earth Institute. Natural Building Colloquium. Bamboo Architecture and Construction with Oscar Hidalgo Notes by CASSANDRA ADAMS Architect Oscar Hidalgo has dedicated his life to bamboo research, and teaching the world about the limitless possibilities of this remarkable plant.
Born in a bamboo house in Chinchina, Colombia, bamboo construction was common in his state, where many residential and public buildings were constructed using this cheap and widely available material. Like most homes, in his house the bamboo was hidden beneath plaster, and indeed, it looked like it was made of brick. After he left the university, Oscar was intrigued by the possibilities of using bamboo in construction, and embarked on a project to construct a country club kiosk 23 meters in diameter using this material.
Building with Earthbags. Here's a fact sheet we gave visitors to the house...GENERAL DESIGN: A small circular dome and a large elliptical dome connected together with a section of a sphere on the north and a planar roof and wall on the south.
This requires minimal use of wood, concrete and steel for construction. CONSTRUCTION METHOD: There is no concrete foundation; the house rests on a pad of scoria laid directly over the natural sand. Successive courses of polypropylene bags filled with sand (on the bottom few courses), and scoria (on the rest of the courses) are piled in an overlapping (brick-like) fashion to form the domes.
Between each course are two strands of 4-point barbed wire. Domes. Mortar Sprayer 3 hole - Contractor Source. Eco-home. Biotecture.