Bamboo house build

Jul 27, 2011 21:54:25

I thought some people might be interested in the bamboo house we build in Thailand. It's renovation rather than a new place.

While it may be difficult to build with bamboo in many places, I think people in South America may find it easy, low cost and very 'green'.

Some of the sustainable features of our place were:
-Bamboo poles and thatch roofing will regenerate within 3 years.

- No petrochems used.

- Very little embodied energy, the poles were came from less than two miles away and were cut with machetes.Besides the borax and a few bags of cement, nothing traveled more than 100 miles to the property.

- Energy efficient during and after building. There is no need for lights during daylight hours and no air con.

- Virtually no garbage during the build. Most building materials can be composted after their lifespan.

Before and after

Jul 27, 2011 22:00:31

Looking inside, the large poles are Dendrocalamus Asper and the smaller ones a local variety - 'Pai Liang'.

The stairs head up to a mezzanine, our 'bedroom' is behind the woven panel.

Jul 27, 2011 22:03:01

Below is the kitchen and mezzanine area, which has a view of the garden and world heritage national park in the background. Coffee table was made from bamboo we harvested/treated, as were the kitchen cabinets and most of the furniture in the house.

Jul 28, 2011 04:59:58

Beautiful! But I would be hard pressed to make it work in Maine. What about mosquioes? No netting?

Jul 28, 2011 08:24:21

once again beautiful! did you tear down that old house? or did you use some parts of it.

Jul 28, 2011 19:24:29

Great looking house!

Jul 28, 2011 19:35:08

Thanks for the compliments. As for the mozzies, the only netting we have is over the beds. I don't beleive it's possible to keep them out, screens generally fail one way or another. We use fans and coils to keep them away.

We used a lot of the exisiting property, including the slab, some of the walls and columns. The first two shots are from similar angles at the front, you can see the window remains.

Here are some pics from the build.

Jun 14, 2012 11:29:12

I am moving to Thailand in Aug, I could use some more info, if you don't mind. My real address is healingarts99@aol.com Thank you!! John

Sep 30, 2012 23:39:41

Dear friend,
i live in Sisaket and Me and my wife want to build a large bamboo house ion Sisaket,
if you have any information where i ca buy the bambou ready for use building a house please let me now
in Sisaket we find a lot of bamboo bud not fiet whit borax ore any other

I hope to receive some information

Greets Hugo Cosyns and Wife Note

email ; hugo.cosyns@gmail.com

Oct 02, 2012 15:50:10

I will SO remember this is I ever move to South America (or really, I bet it would work in warmer areas of the USA too!)

Wonderful job, it is gorgeous!!

Oct 02, 2012 18:22:52

Gorgeous. It reminds of a house I read about in Central America. The owner said that every so often the army ants would just sweep through the house, grabbing every bit of organic matter and taking it with them. I found the idea fascinating. The closest thing we have in Wisconsin is when the box elder beetles try to hibernate in your house, but they don't do any cleanup duties, they just make a mess. Of themselves.

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