Page 12 RAIN September/October 1984 growth cycle, is followed by drying, splitting (as determined by end-use), and treating to prevent rot and decay. The issue of preservation is a hot topic, as many methods currently prescribed involved the use of highly toxic chemicals that have deleterious effects on both the workers applying them and those later exposed to any residual effects. We are currently experimenting with two nontoxic methods of preservation, but with no conclusive evidence as of this writing, it is premature to report on them. Finally, and perhaps most important, when compared with steel, we found that bamboo takes approximately 170 times less energy to produce than its equivalent steel reinforcing bar, though its water requirement limits it to areas with substantial groundwater supplies. The diagram above is an example of a community demonstration building using a variety of indigenous materials. In this building, bamboo is used as foundation reinforcement, door lintel reinforcement, no-wood caliche/bamboo portal systems for doors, bamboo- reinforced roof trusses, and bamboo trellis systems for shading windows with vines. Bamboo, like many other indigenous, abundant building materials, presents the opportunity for many people to have access to safe, efficient, and beautiful housing, regardless of income, which is one of the goals Max's Pot is working toward. Gail Vittori works at the Centerfor Maximum Potential Building Systems (Max's Pot), which has done extensive work on the use of indigenous building materials, particularly bamboo and caliche. Caliche is a hardpan soil that covers 9% of the ivorld's surface and is useful in earth building. For more information about Max's Pot or a list of its publications on earth construction, passive climatic design, or appropriate technology, send a SASE to the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, 8604 Webberville Road, Austin, TX 78724; 5121926-4786. Illustration from A Loiv-Cost Earthquake-Resistant House by Mary Vogel At the Aprovecho Research Center, where I have lived and worked, bamboo has been used in the construction of three small buildings: a one-person residence, a guest sleeping space, and an outhouse. The bamboo residence is by far the most complex of the three, requiring much more knowledge and skill to build. It was constructed with a latticework of bamboo walls and roof, which support concrete-soaked burlap and insulation. The house was partially built by seminar participants who were taught ancient systems of bending, shaping, splitting, and lashing bamboo. The house was designed and largely completed by architect Jim Orjala, who founded Aprovecho's bamboo project. We hope to popularize bamboo as a building material in the Northwest. (Jim has moved to the Bay Area, and the current co-coordinators—Linda Smiley and myself—are looking for a dynamic communitarian-type entrepreneur with vision to carry on the goals of the project: experimentation, education, and dissemination. The position involves a 20-hour work exchange for room and board; joint community household; run bamboo nursery. Contact Aprovecho Research Center, 80574 Hazelton Road, Cottage Grove, OR 97424; 503/942-9434.) Find a society living amid bamboo jungles that has maintained its building techniques, and you'll discover bamboo used in ways staggering to your senses. Bamboo is also grown at the Aprovecho Research Center as a nursery crop for sale or trade, as a privacy screen between our property and our neighbors, and as an aesthetic shelter from the sun on a hot summer day and from the rain on a wet winter day. Buddha chose to die in a grove of bamboo, but none of us have gone beyond meditating there yet. Bamboo survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima closer to ground zero than any other living thing, but the toughest test we plan for it at the Aprovecho Research Center is for erosion control in gulleys caused by former logging operations. Throughout Asia bamboo groves' interlocked roots restrain rivers in floods and support rural villages during earthquakes. Our work at the research center has enabled us to network with many other groups that are doing similar work in popularizing bamboo as a building material. I recently visited Jane and Otis Mullan and their children in the Sierra Nevada of California, where they live and work as part of a land-based intentional community. They had just completed a bamboo-reinforced earth wall, and burlap/cement-roofed schoolhouse. School- children, as well as inexperienced adults, participated in building this structure In this earth-bermed school-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz