Bamboo. The mighty grass of the tropics. The King and Queen of tropical natural building. It stands tall in sheltered valleys, grows at a fascinating pace, and is gracefully flexible, strong and beautiful. Combine this abundant material with the Balinese craftsmen and a creative design team and the result is magic. This magic, and our bamboo campus is why many people are first attracted to Green School.

Have a look at what our neighbour’s at The Kul Kul Farm were up to last February during Bamboo U, Build and Design Course.

Students learned how to harvest and manage bamboo sustainably, practiced building bamboo models, designed and crafted their own bamboo furniture, experimented with 3D printing joints for building modular bamboo structures, wove a bamboo pantry, built two bamboo garden carts using a natural resin to fix the joints together and built the farm’s new compost building.

HARVESTING 

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DESIGNING

Design begins with inspiration, a sharpened pencil and crisp paper. With bamboo architecture it evolves quickly and starts to become alive by widdling the same bamboo that will eventually be used to build the structure into teeny weeny bamboo sticks that are assembled into a 3D model of the building. Bamboo model making is an art. Its a chance to become familiar with the material and make initial visions come alive, without a whole lot of pressure and expense. The model is later used by the builders on site to guide the construction of the final building

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BUILDING

Building with bamboo is a collaboration of skill, experience and intuition. It is not easy, but bamboo is forgiving and with the right guidance and sufficient practice buildings go up fast.

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​Building the farm’s compost building

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Weaving walls for the pantry

Kul-kul-farm-2Designing and building furniture

Experience
Beyond teaching practical bamboo building skills the course aims to shift people’s thinking about building and living in general.

Join the next Bamboo U coming up this June 2nd – 13th with The Kul Kul Farm, Ibuku and very special guest Jorg Stamm. Jorg is a German- trained carpenter who fell in love with Bamboo in Columbia, where he now lives. In 2008 he was a key member of the team that built our Green School campus including the Green School Bridge and the Heart of School. Jorg also designed the spiral bamboo columns that form part of the 3 Mountains Building and the Heart of School.  Find out more and Book Here

Article written by: KulKul Farm