BAMBOOzled...?

Mention Costa Rica and you’ll be transported to a serene, lush place with magnificent beaches and dense forests. Welcome to the World’s greenest and happiest country. One can write thousand words about the beauty of the place, but what I want to share with you is a story of different kind, a tale of endeavours which has made the country the paradise it is today.

In 1986, Costa Rica broke away from the conventional construction technology, and adopted a new Building technology with Bamboo as the building material. This one step has helped the country to address multiple issues of Environmental Protection, Housing Construction, Rural Development and Sustainable Development. As a substitute of wood as the building material, Bamboo has prevented deforestation and serves as a seismically sound material for the earthquake prone region. The project has resulted in technical training, massive bamboo cultivation, community and labour organization, environmental assessment of the technology and production of furniture and handicrafts for export. So far 700 bamboo houses have been built, 200 hectares cultivated with bamboo and 400 people trained in building, cultivating and crafting of bamboo.

Bamboo has been an important construction material since antiquity. It has been used in the eastern hemisphere for centuries (see the pictures below). It is often labelled as the "poor man's timber" because developing countries in Asia, Africa and South America rely on it for food and as a building material. Bamboo housing has the potential to alleviate many environmental and social issues. However, its implementation requires challenging the prevalent mindset and a considerable amount of research and development.

Costa Rica has overcome these barriers and exemplified the power of the traditional know-how in the present. Today we, as a scientific society, are looking for new solutions to the ever-growing problems, but we never seriously consider looking for the solutions in our traditional heritage. Maybe this is the time to pause and look back, and treasure the traditional wisdom we have been gifted with.

Divya