Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
IV
CONTENTS
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THE PLANT
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3
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10
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What is bamboo
Paleobotan
Etymology
Herbaceous and woody bamboos
The woody plants - Classification
Bamboos and trees from tropical and temperate
19
zones
Bamboo Morphology and physiology
Parts of the plant
The Rhizome
Types of bamboos
Leptomorph Rhizome
Rhizome System of Leptomorph type
Di rection which the leptomorp h rhizome ta
takes when it starts its growth
Pachymorph Rhizome
Metamorph Rhizome
The Culm
Formation and growing of the culm base
and culm shoot in species with leptomorph
rhizomes.
Growing process of the culm shoot in species
with Leptomorph and Pachymorph Rhizomes.
Daily growth of the culm shoot
Characteristics of the culm
Nodal and internodal morphology
Nodes - Internodes
Color of the culms
Natural culm forms
The natural square bamboo from China
Internodes with the shape of bottles
Triangular
Flat cu lms
Freak culms
Turtle shell bamboo
Budda's face bamboo
Spiral bamboo
The abnormality of the internodes
Abnormality in culms of Guadua Angustifolia
Mathematical relationships of the culm
Identification of bamboo species by mathematical relationship
Aproximate mathematical determination of the
culm height
Approximate dimensions of some giant bamboos
of Genus Guadua at the time of Columbus' arrival in the Americas in 1502
The huge dimensions of giant bamboos in
ancient China
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BAMBOO FLOWERING
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Types of flowerings
1) Sporadic or irregular flowering
2) Gregarious flowering
The flower
The fruit
Problems caused by gregarious flowering
The importance of the life cycles
Is it possible to predict the gregarious flower
flowering?
Dates of gregarious flowerings and life cycles
of some species from Asia and the Americas
Gregarious flowerings in the Americas
Gregarious flowering of Bambusa arundinacea
in India, Puerto Rico, Panama and Colombia
Gregarious flowering of Bambusa arundinacea in Colombia
Gregarious flowering of Guadua angustifolia in
South America in 1977-78
Gregarious flowering of Guadua amplexifolia
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CONTENTS
CONTENTS
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Guadua in Colombia
The encounter of Columbus with the giant species
of the Americas
- Species of genus Guadua that still have not been
identified
Original distribution of the giant species of
genus Guadua in the Americas
Destruction of the giant bamboo species of genus
Guadua in Latin America
The destruction of the giant native species from
Mexico to Ecuador
Consequences of the aversion and ignorance
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Physical properties
Density -Specific gravity
Moisture content
Equilibrium moisture content (E.M.C.)
Fiber saturation point (F.S.P.)
Shrinkage
Splitting
Thermal conductivity
Hardness
The bamboo that survived the radiation of an
atomic bomb
The influence of bamboo physical properties on
the acoustical quality of the sound field in a
bamboo forest
Mechanical properties of the culm
Differences between wood and bamboo
The main factors which we have to keep in mind
for studying the mechanical properties of the culm
The Climate
The Topography
The Soil
The Altitude above sea level
The Influence of the culm's age
107
Dyeing of bamboo
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Vii
bamboo
Effect of microwave treatment on the green color
conservation and durability of bamboo
Treatment with inorganiC salts
Treatment developed in Japan for the preservationof bamboo's greenness
Gluing of bamboo surfaces
Bamboo laquer ware
Preparation of strips and round sticks by hand
Bamboo processing machinery
Manufacture of bamboo weaving and baskets
Bamboo weaving
Square weaving -Yotsume-Ami
Hexagon weaving-Mutsume Ami
Ajiro weaving
Bottom weaving
Border weaving
Some of the many applications of bamboo baskets
Some applications of woven boards
Manufacture of a creche
Bamboo culm-base carving
Bamboo internode relief sculpture
Bamboo furniture
Types of jOints used in the manufacture of furniture
Somes types of chairs-tables
Bending or straightening of giant bamboo culms
with fire
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
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MANUFACTURE OF BAMBOO
COMPOSITE MATERIALS
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veneer
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CEMENT-BASED COMPOSITES
REINFORCED WITH BAMBOO
FIBERS
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BAMBOO WALLS
Quincha" Wall-Peru
Peru - Bamboo architecture with "quincha"
Ecuador-Ancient and present bamboo architec
Crammed wall with clay -Colombia
Bahareque wall with double bamboo board
Colombia
Cross section of a double bamboo board wall
Tendinous wall-India - Colombia
Woven bamboo boards for walls and windows
Bamboo mat board for walls, doors and windowsAsia
Japanese bamboo wall
ROOF STRUCTURES
Light roof truss
Bamboo light truss with rafters
Fastenings of purlins and rafters
Bamboo rigid frame
Construction of peak roofs with spanish tile
(Colombia)
Peak roofs with ceiling and spanish ti le(Colombia)
Hip roofs with corbels-(Colombia)
Hip roofs with ceiling and spanish tile(Colombia)
Details of joints on storehouse roofs
Bamboo and grain stalk thatched roofs
Bamboo and palm leaf thatched roof
Roof type "A" for a small house
Roof type "A" for a small coffee beam
treatment plant
Construction of the roof
Roof covered with half sections of bamboo
culms
Roof covered with bamboo shingle tiles
CONTENTS
PREFABRICATION OF BAMBOO
HOUSES
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CONSTRUCTION OF BAMBOO
SCAFFOLDINGS (KNOT-TYING)
Small bamboo scaffolding - Colombia
Types of knots used in the construction of scaffoldings
-Knots used in scaffoldings for fixing hand-rails
Bamboo bipod and tripod for hanging pulleys
Hanging scaffolds
Knot tying for vertical transportation of bamboo
Rope ladder
Construction of bamboo scaffoldings for
high rise building in Hong Kong
Scaffoldings for repair or building small structures
Bracing of wood and bamboo posts
Bracing of scaffoldings in China
Different shapes of scaffoldings for small
buildings (China)
Splicing and bracing of bamboo scaffoldings
Bracing of bamboo scaffoldings
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CONTENTS
Mosque built with tied laminated bambooConstruction details
How to build tied bamboo laminated arches
Glue laminated bamboo beams and arches
Glue laminated bamboo arches with
2 or 3 articulations
Bamboo composite beams ("I" and "Box"
bamboo beams)
Ply bamboo web beams with bamboo laminated
flanges
"I" and "Box" bamboo beams
Construction of floors and roofs with "\"
and "Box" beams
Construction of rigid frames with "I"
and "Box" beams
Conical thatching bamboo roofs
Conical roof with tension ring
Conical thatching roof with radial tension cables
Bamboo conical roof supported by a concrete
structure
The bamboo domes of Y. Friedman & E. Schaur
Construction of domes with bamboo slats
Types of domes built with bamboo slats
Construction of roofs with bamboo slat rings
(Y. Friedman)
Roofs made with bamboo slats rings
The woven bamboo conical dome (Africa)
The woven bamboo conical dome used
as housing
Double layer bamboo space structure
Construction
Construction of joints
Construction of joints using a metal cone
Not recommended joints
-Bamboo laminated geodesic dome
Dome construction
Geodesic geometry
Bamboo geodesic dome-Types of joints
Types of framing used in the geodesic dome
Geodesic dome struts
Bamboo geodesic dome-Construction
How to calcu late the lengths of the struts according to the dome diameter
Bamboo hyperbolic paraboloid structures
Types of hyperbolic paraboloids
Construction of regular paraboloids
Structures built with regular hyperbolics
paraboloids
Construction of a bamboo paraboloid in Hawaii
Roof with several bamboo hypars
Bamboo conoid structures for roofs and walls
Types of bamboo conoid roofs-Construction
Bamboo tensile structures (Tensegrity)
Applications
Bamboo tensile structures
Catenary arches made with bamboo sections
Construction of catenary arches
STRUCTURES GENERATED BY
NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF LIVING CULMS
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Plastering of the bamboo walls. with
cement-mortar
The first bamboo housing project in Manizales
House plan and distribution
Longitudinal sections
The largest structures built by Colombian
architects.
The bamboo roof of Carlos Verga ra
Perspective and plan of the structure
The latest bamboo roof structures of Simon Velez
The bamboo roof structure in Ecuador 387
The circular bamboo roof of Zeri Pavilion
The Zeri Pavillion- Roof details
Cross section and construction details
Roof construction details developed by S. Velez
Tensile tests of bamboo roof joints
Conclusions of the tests carried out by
Garzon & Diaz
Recommendations in the use of internodes
with cement mortar (by O. Hidalgo)
TRADITIONAL BAMBOO
ARCHITECTURE IN ASIA
Was the Homo erectus the first architect in
China?
Was the first man engendered by a
bamboo culm?
Evolution of primitive conical timber and bamboo
japanese roofs
The use of bamboo scissors in primitive houses
Evolution of bamboo conical roofs in South
East Asia
Bamboo roofs in South East Asia and the
influence of boats on their architecture
Bamboo & timber roof architecture (Southeast
Asia)
Bamboo roof architecture in South East Asia
Roof construction in IndonesiaThe Toradja house
The Toradja House-Construction
Indonesia-Traditional bamboo house construction
Ancient bamboo architecture in China
The ancient bamboo house
The Porch-Details of joints and vierendeel
trusses
Details of the bamboo rigid frames
The origin of the Chinese roofs
Ancient bamboo architecture in India
The building styles
Evolution of bamboo domes and barrel roofs
The shapes of the houses or cottages in the
Bengal villages
Domical and barrel roofs
Vaulted roofs
The lotus or horseshoe arch
The lotus dome
The lotus arch and the lotus dome
Bamboo curved roof and its evolution in
bamboo cupolas
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
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Roofs types
Architectural design
Constructional elements
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536
Bamboo in transportation 1.
Bamboo bullock carts in India
Bicycle with bamboo frame -Brasi l
Bamboo stylus (needle) used in phonographs
Bamboo spring lock
Use of bamboo in ca rtography
537
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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INTRODUCTION
xiv
Introduction
One afternoon in 1963 at the end of the lecture which I gave to the
last semester students at the College of Agricultural Sciences of the
National University of Colombia in Palmira, about the traditional uses of
"guadua" (the vernacular name of our main giant bamboo species, Guadua angustifolia Kunth) in rural construction, one of the students asked
me: What is guadua?, What is its origin? When he noted the surprise his
question caused me, because I am an architect and he was almost an
agronomist, he told me, I have to write a thesis about guadua and so far
I have not been able to find any botanical or technical information about
this plant in the library.
I could not believe what he said . I could not believe that there were no
scientific or technical studies about the most useful of all our plants,
which for centuries has contributed to the social and economic development of Colombia, where about 60% of the total population of the cities
and rural areas use this material not only in the construction of their
houses, but also in buildings, factories and in the construction of stables,
bridges, aqueducts and many other uses.
Based on my belief, I promised my student that I would get some
information for his thesis. During several days, I visited the libraries of
various universities including that of Natural Sciences in Bogota where I
found hundreds of books written by our botanists, even about plants
which have no economic value, but I could not find any botanical or technical information about our "guadua". My student was right and I became
frustrated because I could not help him with any information. Unfortunately, this student died in an accident two months later, not knowing
that his questions were the seeds which created in me a great interest for
the study of our marvelous "guadua" in which I have spent many years of
my life.
What was the reason for the lack of interest of our botanists, agronomists and forestry universities in the study of this plant? I talked with several forestry engineers who told me that at that time (1963), there were so
many large natural plantations of bamboo in our country that this plant
was considered to be a weed and the Cinderella of our natural resources
since it was only used by poor people in the construction of their houses.
Consequently, nobody was interested in the study of this plant since it was
considered a waste of time. For this reason, there was no technical or scientific information about this plant. Therefore, students had not received
any information about it from their professors at the university, not even
about the way it could be cultivated. I became frustrated, because if there
was no information about this plant, how could I start studying it?
Several weeks later I received from my friend Dr. Guillermo Ramos
Nunez a small publication, "Bamboo as Construction Material" written in
1953 by Dr. Alonzo McClure at the U.S Department of Agriculture,
Washington D.C In this publication, I learned that "guadua" was not a
tree (as it was believed to be in Colombia) but a giant grass, which was
considered to be one of the best bamboos in the world for durability and
strength. For me, this information opened the doors of that marvelous
world of bamboo in which I have been wandering for many years and
which has taken me to visit several countries of Asia such as Japan, China,
the Phillipines, Taiwan and Indonesia, where I started my studies on
bamboo.
There has been little interest in this plant in Latin America as a
result of the lack of technical and scientific information written in Spanish about our native bamboo species, so most Latin American countries have destroyed their native giant species up to the point that in most
of them bamboo is on the brink of extinction like in Venezuela, Mexico
and Guatemala.
xv
PART ONE
The Bamboo Plant
Sect 1
TH E PLANT
Paleobotany
Etymology
Herbaceous and woody
bamboos
Bamboo orphology and
Physiology
Leptomorph rizome
Pachymorph rhizome
Methamorph rhizome
The culm
Characteristics of the culm
Mathematical relations
Culm branches & Leaves
Anatomy of bamboo culm
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Fig.
1.1
Culm
species is solid or
WHAT IS BAMBOO
Branch
Node
Bamboo is not a tree as it is considered by the majority
of people. but a giant arborescent grass, or in other words, a
woody giant herbage. As such, it belongs to the family
C,.amineae (Poaceae), subfamily Bambusoideae, whose
members possess a similar distinctive in the leaf blade
anatomy. i.e., fusoid cells and arm cells, which sets the bamboo apart from grasses. All grasses that possess this ty-pe of
leaf anatomy are known as "bambusoid grasses". They
range from a few centimeters in height, such as those of
genera Raddiella which grow on wet rocks near rapids in
the Guianas, South America, to giant species up to 40
meters high, as Dendrocalamus giganteus, from India.
PALEOBOTANY
In relation to the origin of the plant. Velenovsky claims
that the bamboo plant flourished in the Cretaceous period,
when grasses and cereal appeared, just before the beginning
of the Terciary period, when the first humans also appeared.
(Porterfield 1925).
Fossils of Chusquea rolloti of the Tertiary were found in
the area of La Virginia near Girardot, Colombia (about '40
kilometers from Bogota). (Berry 1929). According to Taylor &
Smoot (1984), the earliest recorded paleobotanical contribution was the description of fossil "bamboo shoots" by the
Chinese scholar Shen Kua (1029-1093), publisl)ed in 1086 in
his work entitled "Dream Pool Essays".
Although the beginning of paleo-botany may be traced
to this work, it was not until the seventeenth century that
paleobotanical investigation began in Europe. Shen Kua
reported in his work that in the year 1080 there was a landslide in China on the bank of a large river in Yung-Ning
Kuang near Yenchow;" ... The bank collapsed, opening a
ETYMOLOGY
The origin of the word "bamboo" is a puzzle to etymologists. Some believe that this word is Malayan in origin and it
is the onomatopoeic for bam-boom, the cracking sound made
by the culms when they are burned. With the heat, the air in
the sealed hollow bamboo internodes expands until they blow
apart. Other authors consider that the term "bamboo" had its
origin in"mambu", the ancient Indian term for bamboo.
- t - - - Culm