WHY BAMBOO

Bamboos form the single most important item of forest produce used by the rural communities in Asia and the Pacific, from the cradIe to the coffin.

BAMBOO

Why bamboo

History of Bamboo

Though once called the poor man’s timber it is no longer so. Its use as a long fiber raw material in the pulp and paper industry is well known and is one of the much sought after raw material in the tropics.

  • Architecture
  • Material supply
  • Development

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years of research

Its use in housing, agricultural, horticultural pursuits, fishing industry, powerplant, transport system both on land and water, handicrafts and production of edible shoots warrant reconsideration of the classification of bamboos as a ‘Minor Forest Produce’ in some countries and in others as ‘non commercial species’. Bamboo is found in natural forests, plantation forests and in unique types of agroforests in Indonesia. 

  • Architecture
  • interior Design
  • furniture

In this modern world, Bamboo material gains popularity in building constructions as people started to develop consciousness in sustainable and eco-themed living and commercial spaces; Bamboo can be used for a huge variety of building purposes, including supporting columns, interior and exterior walls, flooring and kitchen/bathroom fittings, as well as structural frames, corner posts, rafters and roofing. It can easily be trained into different shapes, creating a versatile material for different building purposes. 

  • Architecture
  • interior Design
  • furniture

Bamboo

Characteristics

As an organic material, Bamboo will need to go through intensive process of treatments in order to make sure it is ready to be used as long lasting construction materials. As how organic material, bamboo is susceptible to the detrimental impacts of Insects, fungi, rot & decomposition and fire. With this reasons, bamboo materials need to be treated both from the inside and outside.

Bamboo was proven to have stronger tensile strength than steel in various researches worldwide and is approved by Inbar (International Bamboo and Rattan Organization) for its sturdiness and resistance to earthquake and lightweight factor.

It is also the quickest plant you can grow for building material. While conventional wood material might take decades to fully grow, bamboo only needs 3-4 years to be able to mature and harvested as construction material, this makes them cheaper as well as giving less negative impact to the environment than generic wood materials.

For the environment, bamboo have the quality to quickly rehabilitate the forest due to its quick growth and is able to store up to five thousand liters of water within one cluster, making it the best natural water system for the forests even in dry season. 

Bamboo

Future Potentials

Indonesia Government Initiatives
Given the characteristics, we are convinced that bamboo will gain more popularity as construction material as well as furniture material, essentially a replacement for wood in some industry. But what will be the spark that starts this change? Indonesia’s government had started a movement in 2016 called the Seribu Desa Bambu or “Thousand Bamboo Village” project, the idea is to make bamboo to be more known and utilized as local commodity that can compete with multinational market by creating and educating local people and corporation to use and grow more bamboo in a thousand villages across Indonesia.


Tourism & The Mandalika
As tourism goes in Lombok Island, in a couple of years Kuta area will be the leading tourism area as result of The Mandalika Project in ITDC. Mandalika is the next world class tourism destination in Indonesia created by ITDC. The new destination will offer a unique experience that is different from other locations around the world.

The Mandalika has been designed as an ecotourism destination from the offset, incorporation Clean Solar Cell Energy, Water Destination Plants and keeping over 51% of the resort as open 'Green Space', which will not only maintain and protect the natural beauty of the Mandalika scenery but also enhance the life and culture of the local people.

With this idea, The Mandalika will also encourage green and sustainable buildings such as bamboo constructions within its areas. This will encourage more people and investors to better understand the charm of bamboo architectures.

MATERIALS

We built our own bamboo treatment facility in order to set higher standards. Keep evolving by researching new methods to increase quality and efficiency. All of our workers, bamboo specialists and artisans are local Lombok people who are plentiful in experience and thoroughly understands the nature of bamboo in the wild as well as their usages as everyday needs and as building material.

BAMBOO
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The Process

Hand-picking Quality Bamboo in Local Bamboo Forest/Farm

All bamboos are hand-picked from Lombok forests to ensure structural strength and longevity. Treated with special chemical to make it devoid of bugs, fungi and develops resistance to rotting and weathering – increases its lifespan in a building.

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Knowing who and how the bamboo selection process is key to get the best of the best, we work together with certified local bamboo farmers that know quality and understand how to treat them properly even before they were cut and brought to our treatment facility.
At cutting, our bamboo farmers write down the circumference size and the date to implement FIFO method and make sure every bamboo is treated evenly without leaving them too long under the sun's exposure untreated to prevent rotting.

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Bamboo Sorting & Cleaning

Aiming for highest quality bamboo construction material, all of our bamboo have to be certain length and thickness. Our standard bamboo is cut at 13 meters length and the Petung variant can easily weigh over 50kg per bamboo, for this type of bamboo we carefully lift and carry them by hand to avoid any damages to the outer skin.

Sorting
Bamboo then sorted and separated into different types they are used for and cleaned by hand with soft fibre until the outer skin is clean and devoid of any moss/fungi, after which they will look more into light brown/yellow-ish rather than the green live bamboo.

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Bamboo Treatment

Cleaned bamboo will then soaked in a specially made pool for 14 days and boiled to treat both out and inside of each bamboo with boron chemical solution to remove fungi, moss and preserve bamboo in its prime condition also further protect the bamboo from weathering and rotting.

Soak+Boiling
Bamboo then sorted and separated into different types they are used for and cleaned by hand with soft fibre until the outer skin is clean and devoid of any moss/fungi, after which they will look more into light brown/yellow-ish rather than the green live bamboo.

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Quality Control & Storage

Properly stored and maintained bamboo can lasts a long time, but storing it for too long also have the risk of accumulating unneeded residue that can have impact in the long run. In our bamboo treatment facility, we do regular inspection to our stock materials and treat them accordingly. FIFO method is also implemented to maintain freshness of the stockpile.

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Sustainability

Replanting

Caring for the environment is part of our passion and, looking at the future, we are positive that there will be many more usage of bamboo yet to be discovered and utilized.

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From this point of view, it is only natural that we will need many more accessible bamboo materials. We actively replant and donate available high quality bamboo shoots to encourage local people, communities and government to replant as well.
Product

Recycling

Just like how bamboo has been a staple material for the locals for centuries, it has many uses and we are continuously looking for creating new products from bamboo that is beneficial and share the knowledge or purchase original design to be mass produced by local Lomboknese craftsman so they can benefit from our products as well.

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From daily products, furnitures, building material to power plant fuel, every last bit of bamboo is not going to waste, we aspire so that more people know about the versatility and sustainability aspect of bamboo as well.