intro

Bamboo is a fascinating building material; examples of bamboo-architecture possess a natural aura, which is not reached using other materials. In doing so bamboo unites almost all positive properties: It is good value for money, non-polluting, enormously sturdy and also earthquake-proof!
Bamboo provides a wide range of possibilities which is not fully used so far. So production, processing and use of bamboo gives an opportunity to people, who recognize, estimate and know to use its potential.

Bamboo is an extreme product of the nature regarding size, lightness and strength. Structure and properties are equivalent to an ultramodern high tech material: It is high-strength, stiffened by the nodes, but because of its cavities extremely light and elastic. Its physical qualities are partially far superior than those of other materials like timber, concrete or steel. The heartwood is the strongest part of timber, so strength decreases from the center outwards, whereas the strongest part of the bamboo culm is at the outer edge of the culm wall - a much more stable construction.

There are approximately 500 different bamboo species (Bambusae) with partially hundreds of subspecies, among them 2500 in the tropical South America. In Colombia alone, approximately 25 different giant bamboos are processed in art, craft and building construction.

The bamboo has adapted itself world-wide to diverse ecological conditions: The bamboo belt runs through tropical, subtropical and temperate climates around the globe, up to 45° North and South Latitude and up to 3.500m altitude.