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A full sixth of the world’s 6.3 billion people live in homes made from bamboo. This green renewable resource has been the material of choice for housing since the dawn of humankind. Yet in America, where we create the largest carbon footprints on the planet, we eschew the use of bamboo for our homes.  What’s wrong with this picture?

What’s Shakin’?

This earthquake-proof bamboo housing innovation in Nanjing stands alone where others wobble and collapse. The English People Daily reports that researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences created an attractive, sustainable home that not only has eight-degree seismic fortification intensity, but is resistant to moisture, rot, and insect damage.

Above It All

In Bolivia, builders have created treehouses from its abundant supply of 17 species of bamboo that can be grown, sold, and quickly renewed. Considering that the material has been used for housing in South America for 4,500 years, most existing bamboo homes there are 100 years old. Once known as the “poor man’s timber”, bamboo just may be the answer on a continent where nearly half the residents have no homes at all. Read more about the promise of this alternative wood at Bamboo Living.

Dream Weaver

This woven bamboo house was created by designer Søren Korsgaard.  If birds weave nests, why can’t we?

Run Forest, Run

This Forest House, created by London’s ROEWU Architecture for a family in Taiwan, shows how good it can get with bamboo. Light and air filter through the bamboo screen, changing the interior look throughout the day. Upper stories and are naturally ventilated and the roof contains a spa that the family uses in winter months.

We should consider using bamboo extensively in the American South, Southwest, and West where it would be a sound, green alternative to pricey, increasingly sparse hard woods.