In The World Of Bamboo

So today I would like to walk you through the world of bamboo furniture and construction. I will show you what all it takes to transform this-

and this-

into this-

Mind you it’s not a cake walk and a lot of resources including labour, money, time and good quality bamboo go into it! I am in charge of “entertaining”  guests in office and showing them around our facilities and I am going to do just that for you! Before we start the tour, here are some Fun Facts about bamboo that every person should know about.

• Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on this planet. It grows three times faster than the fastest growing tree! Some species can grow even up to 1 meter per day. (trust me, I’ve seen them grow in front of my eyes!)
• It is a species of grass (it’s called wonder grass and for good reason). It is different from cane as cane is a species of Palm.
• Bamboo’s tensile strength is 28,000 per square inch versus 23,000 for steel and pressure treated bamboo has durability of more than thirty years.
• Bamboo provides fastest growing canopy to re-greening of degraded areas & generates thirty-five percent more oxygen than equivalent stand of trees.

Equipped with this knowledge, we start the process of conversion of a grass into shelter!

1. The first process is grading the bamboo after it is bought from the market / farmer (Konbac has trained a few farmers in appropriate cultivation for bamboo which yields good quality, construction grade bamboo)-

1. Then it is sorted by diameter and thickness of outer wall depending on the use it is going to be put for-

1. Once graded and sorted, the poles are treated with chemicals so that they are not attacked by borers and other insects, climate and fungus. The chemical is a boric-borax solution that enters all the pores through capillary action when the liquid is passed through it under vacuum in this treatment plant-

1. The chemical essentially replaces all the organic matter that is prone to attack and so the bamboo becomes almost like a plastic material by the end of treatment. It can be argued then that material cannot be called sustainable anymore but please refer to the fun facts above about why it still can be considered eco-friendly. There are other natural ways of treating bamboo but they are not fool-proof.

2. Once the bamboo becomes the raw material to start construction, it comes to the factory and is again graded and stacked according to its use-

1. Then the carpenters get to work on it. The processes involve skinning, removing knots / sanding, bending/ straightening with burners as bamboo when heated bends easily as the fibres become ductile and retains shape on cooling!

Joinery with chisels and hammers and measuring tapes-

and special bamboo nails, nuts n bolts, jigs and other hardware-

1. Once the carpentry is finished, in it’s raw form-

1. The item is ready to go into the polishing/ painting booth-

1. Where after a lot of chemicals coats for shine and durability-

1. We get a finished product like this gazebo!- In case of big structures, the components are processed individually and then assembled on site.

Tadaa!

Ready to use, in any weather and with a guarantee of more than 30 years! This one’s my fav place in the entire campus where I talk on the phone or read a book!

They try out crazy stuff like this crazy gazebo for a master architect in India-

And of course all this is not possible without all the mundane accounting and office work!

Ok then, we have reached the end of our tour! Please leave a message in our visitor’s book! I will show you out now…

Thank you for visiting!