Bamboo as a building material

Introduction

Building with bamboo looks back on an ancient tradition in the regions in which plant grows in abundance, such as South America, Africa and, in particular, in South-EastAsia. Bamboo is one of the oldest construction materials.

Bamboo as plant

Botanical classification

In 1778 Carl von Linné introduced the description bamboo into sience based on the indian word “Mambu” or “Bambu”.
The family of the gramineae (grasses) incorporates the subfamily of the bamboos. The gramineae also comprise the rice, corn and sugar cane. There are existing 500 different species of bamboo with partial some hundred subspecies. The term bamboo describes all tree- or bushlike grasses having a durable woody or branched stem. The lignifying cell structure of the bamboo tissue and its technological properties are very similar to the wood tissue proper. Bamboo may therefore also be termed wood. Contrary to wood, the bamboo have a hard outer surface and is soft inside.