Building With Bamboo - Structural - Other Crafts

M mbonga Member La Mesa, California Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 556	M mbonga Posted posted on Tue, Feb 14, 2006 1:32 PM Yes, that's a nice, practical example, scaperman. Nice photos, too. You ought to think about drawing up some diagrams to show how it was done, at least if somebody else is interested in copying it. It looks like you have cross-like beam structures whose horizontal beams help support the sloped bamboo roof, correct? It looks to me, after looking over all of Johnny's links and scaperman's structure, and thinking about bamboo structures I've seen, that bamboo structures could be considered to fall into two categories: pure bamboo, and mixed bamboo-and-timber. The larger pure bamboo structures appear to always use the largest poles for vertical support (an obvious strategy) or else cluster several smaller poles into the needed pillars. Smaller structures like trellises and gazebos tend to be purely bamboo, probably because they don't need heavier support. It looks like there are no real architectural guidelines for bamboo: you just build whatever shape you want--rectangular cross-section is the western world's default building shape--and make sure the main beams are all held together strongly enough to be sturdy. Once the main supporting beams are in place, the bamboo lattices just fill in the reamaining spaces incidentally. At least that's how it appears to me. I'd like to get some of those books to find out. That was the strategy behind scaperman's structure. I guess I'm extra concerned about architectural support because everything I used to build like that as a kid would soon twist, fold, and/or collapse. Nowadays I would like to know in advance that such collapse can't physically happen. That artificial thatch is a good idea, for fire and water issues. I didn't know artificial thatch existed. P.S.--This link I just found about artificial thatch says it's not flame retardant, which surprises me, since to me that would be the main motivator of using artificial thatch in the first place: http://www.tropicalexpressions.com/showcase7.html P.P.S.--Another link, this one having Fire Retardant Thatch (and showing the Swiss Family Treehouse, besides!): http://www.autographfoliages.com/images/lrg_cat_pages/p_006.jpg [ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-14 14:05 ] [ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-14 16:52 ]

Yes, that's a nice, practical example, scaperman. Nice photos, too. You ought to think about drawing up some diagrams to show how it was done, at least if somebody else is interested in copying it. It looks like you have cross-like beam structures whose horizontal beams help support the sloped bamboo roof, correct?

It looks to me, after looking over all of Johnny's links and scaperman's structure, and thinking about bamboo structures I've seen, that bamboo structures could be considered to fall into two categories: pure bamboo, and mixed bamboo-and-timber. The larger pure bamboo structures appear to always use the largest poles for vertical support (an obvious strategy) or else cluster several smaller poles into the needed pillars. Smaller structures like trellises and gazebos tend to be purely bamboo, probably because they don't need heavier support.

It looks like there are no real architectural guidelines for bamboo: you just build whatever shape you want--rectangular cross-section is the western world's default building shape--and make sure the main beams are all held together strongly enough to be sturdy. Once the main supporting beams are in place, the bamboo lattices just fill in the reamaining spaces incidentally. At least that's how it appears to me. I'd like to get some of those books to find out. That was the strategy behind scaperman's structure. I guess I'm extra concerned about architectural support because everything I used to build like that as a kid would soon twist, fold, and/or collapse. Nowadays I would like to know in advance that such collapse can't physically happen.

That artificial thatch is a good idea, for fire and water issues. I didn't know artificial thatch existed.

P.S.--This link I just found about artificial thatch says it's not flame retardant, which surprises me, since to me that would be the main motivator of using artificial thatch in the first place:

http://www.tropicalexpressions.com/showcase7.html

P.P.S.--Another link, this one having Fire Retardant Thatch (and showing the Swiss Family Treehouse, besides!):

http://www.autographfoliages.com/images/lrg_cat_pages/p_006.jpg

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-14 14:05 ]

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-14 16:52 ]

Post #214612 by mbonga on Tue, Feb 14, 2006 1:32 PM