Following the legacy of John and Cynthia hardy’s green school in bail, their heir Ellora and Orin hardy have introduced the Bamboo U, to disseminate the knowledge of bamboo.

The course entails of 35 international participants from a different discipline like university students, professionals, scientists, nutritionists, entrepreneurs, agriculturalists, environmental advocates, artists, experimentalist and certainly the designers, to explore the mystical possibilities of bamboo.

Bamboo U, an 11 days intensive workshop, collaborated with IBUKU and the Kul Kul Farm. The course has been designed with over 15 hours of classroom lectures and 11+ hands-on workshops. The program consists of bamboo forestry, harvesting, preservation, traditional carpentry and craftsmanship, engineering, model making and full-scale construction, and the fundamentals of sustainable bamboo architecture.

Instructors like bamboo experts, bamboo farmers, bamboo intellects, entrepreneurs, engineers, artist, product designers, and university professors enlightened us to understand the potential future of bamboo as a construction material and its aesthetical value.

Day 00: Orientation & Blessing: A very humble welcome by Orin hardy, director of Bamboo U & co-founder of the Kul Kul Farm.

Day 01: Forestry, harvesting, & preservation

Kul Kul Farm tour lead by Maria Farrugia, permaculturist and founder of the Kul Kul Farm.

Sustainable bamboo forestry talk by Arief Rabik.

Harvesting & treatment

Coding workshop

Harvesting workshop

Day 02: Carpentry basics

Bamboo-engineering lecture by Neil Thomas, director of Atelier One.

Bamboo carpentry with moko.

Image © Hricha

Day 03: Model making & systems

Bamboo architecture 101 by Ewe Jin Low.

Reciprocal tower model making workshop.

Membrane design by Neil Thomas.

"People describe bamboo as being like concrete or steel, but they haven’t quite got it right. From my recent experience of designing a whole new set for u2 from carbon fiber, I can say bamboo is like carbon fiber. If I were to design a material to build with and i closed my eyes to describe the properties I’d like it to have, what it should look like, how it’s made and what its form is, it would look like bamboo. Nature did something in making bamboo, something that we can’t achieve today in the 21st century with the technology we have. We will, but not yet," said Neil Thomas.

Image © Vipul Bansal

Day 4: Bamboo here & now

Bamboo talk & IBUKU by Elora hardy (founder of IBUKU).

Pt bamboo pure factory tour.

Green school architectural tour during bamboo U.

Reciprocal tower challenge.

Bamboo U: origins of green school talk by John Hardy.

Day 5: a free day!

Day 6: design opportunities talk by Scott Vandervoort.

Day 7: Onsite workshop: product design with Scott / retractable yurt/basket weaving/ full-scale reciprocal tower.

Day 8: Continuation of onsite workshop: product design / retractable yurt / basket weaving/ full-scale reciprocal tower.

Day 9: Continuation of onsite workshop: product design / retractable yurt / basket weaving/ full-scale reciprocal tower.

Day 10: Continuation of onsite workshop: product design / retractable yurt / basket weaving/ full-scale reciprocal tower.

Day 11: Projects and design presentation.

Certificate giving ceremony.

It was Jules de Laage (architect), Kane Macartney (architect), Leticia oak (furniture designer) Arief Rabik (founder of 1,000 bamboo villages initiative), moko (bamboo craftsman/head carpenter), Mike (architect from bamboo u), Scott Vandervoort (design specialist), Neil Thomas (engineer), Ewe Jin Low (architect), Orin hardy, Elora hardy, and all my fellow participants, and everyone else who made bamboo u March 2019 possible.

Save $100 on your next bamboo u course by using ambassador promo code: 1903bbdcac

       Image © Blaise

Bamboo U 2019 March batch.

All images © Arefin Chisty unless otherwise stated.

> via Kul Kul Farm