On the verdant slopes of Hölualoa, just above Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawai‘i, amid sprawling monkey pod trees and fragrant coffee orchards, fashion designer Virginia Small’s soon-to-be-finished home quietly heralds a change in western building methods. With its sea-grass ceiling and ample 912—square foot covered länai, the breezy 2,064-square-foot structure mirrors Hawai‘i’s pragmatic sugar plantation style, and so could hardly be more apt. But Small’s abode also bears witness to a growing demand for environmentally-friendly construction materials. From structural poles to grand staircase, panels, and walls, it is built almost entirely with one of the world’s most sustainable resources, bamboo. 

    A feathery, clacking grass, bamboo has long served as a prized ornamental resource. Revered for its serene beauty and myriad properties—5000 uses have been documented in Asia, Africa, and South America alone, and 1500 varieties exist—bamboo symbolizes strength coupled with flexibility. The earliest Hawaiians brought a variety of bamboo with them on their canoes named ‘ohe, which they used for medicine and the crafting of nose flutes, but bamboo wasn’t used for shelters as it had been in other tropical sites.

    Hawai‘i has, in fact, hardly been a leader in eco-friendly construction practices during recent years, in part because it is prone to hurricanes and earthquakes, and because it follows the world’s most stringent building requirements, as outlined by the International Code Council (ICC). Late in 2004, however, a grassroots company in Haiku, Maui, Bamboo Technologies, reformed long-standing practices when it gained ICC approval to use bamboo for structural construction, the first company to do so in the United States.

    Founders David E. Sands, a licensed architect, and Jeffree Trudeau, an RPI graduate in architecture, had long been in search of a timber resource that would spare the world’s diminishing hardwood forests. They had been experimenting, especially, with bamboo. Unlike typical slow-growing lumber from, say, old-growth Douglas fir, bamboo rapidly renews itself when harvested. Some bamboo species grow four feet in one day. “A typical bamboo home requires just its own square footage harvested from a typical bamboo grove,” Trudeau explains. “Within three to four years, this bamboo grove patch replenishes itself, ready for another house. In contrast, it takes one acre to build a standard American house with typical lumber. The environmental impact is significant.”

    When bamboo is cut for construction purposes, its root system—a dense rhizome mat—remains alive, so that erosion does not occur. Per acre, bamboo is said to release 30 percent more oxygen into the air than a traditional forest. When planted on a massive scale, bamboo may even aid in a reversal of global warming. It also feeds topsoil and keeps twice as much water in the ground as hardwoods due to the large mat of roots. Of course, bamboo is also beautiful.

    But can hollow-stemmed bamboo be possibly strong enough to support a home? Absolutely. Bamboo poles are two to three times stronger than comparable Douglas fir poles. In 1996, Sands and Trudeau built their first bamboo home on Maui to prove their point. The challenge of obtaining permits followed, which would take nearly a decade of unrelenting research and an investment of a half-million dollars. They succeeded. The consequences are huge. “As long as you work with a qualified engineer, wherever you are, you can now build a house of bamboo,” Sands says. “That is because we have shown that bamboo is structurally capable, and we have obtained the permits.”

    The company is actively developing a worldwide network of alliances to build bamboo homes and resorts. The Hawaiian Islands currently count about 100 bamboo homes. Prospective homeowners are encouraged to choose from 10 standard models ranging from simple pavilions to luxurious two-story spreads shaped as octagons, squares, rectangles or combinations thereof. Sands assists with customizing these. “They can be adapted to any climate,” he says. “We are now offering insulated homes.”

    The bamboo currently comes from Central Vietnam. Bamboo Technologies prefabricates the models there in one factory. The homes are dismantled before shipping, arrive on the prospective homeowner's site in containers, and are then reassembled, often in less than 10 days. Count maybe another three months to put in fixtures, finish flooring, plumbing, and electricity. “As far as we know, even with the shipping, the total energy used from bamboo cultivation to construction has far less impact than any other type of building material,” Sands says.

    The use of Vietnamese bamboo does more than saving trees and energy. Vietnam stands out for its exquisite craftsmanship. All cuts and joints are done by hand. Panels are subtly carved. “So each home is a work of art,” Sands says. “This would never be cost-effective in the United States.” Bamboo Technologies ensures meanwhile that Vietnamese bamboo growers manage the groves in sustainable ways, and social values are in place. “Our factories abide by fair trade policies,” says Sands. “We provide health care, education, and several other benefits.” About 200 workers are currently employed.

    Virginia Small is thrilled about it all. She bought her verdant, rambling three-acre property in 1976. “But,” she says, “I wanted to live lightly on the earth. I found nothing appropriate until Bamboo Technologies became certified.” She adapted a standard model of two bedrooms and two baths, and put in a picture-window loft that doubles as her work studio. Bamboo covers the bolts for the stainless steel brace system that stabilizes the house. Hand-carved art panels highlight her home: “I asked for designs with coffee trees and passion fruit vines in honor of the farm,” she says.

    Eventually, Bamboo Technologies envisions using bamboo grown on Hawaiian soil, taking sustainability and green building to the next step Hawai‘i has plenty of land for such sustainable forestry. If Sands and Trudeau can realize this vision, then the beautiful bamboo that the ancient Hawaiians originally brought to the Islands for medicinal purposes may end up becoming the best medicine of all for the Islands themselves.