Durability of whole culm bamboo: Facts, misconceptions and the new ISO 22156 framework

Kaminski, Sebastian; Harries, Kent; Felipe Lopez, Luis; Trujillo, David; Archila, Hector

Abstract

Durability of bamboo is one of the most important aspects to consider when designing and building with this nature-based material. Durable structures with bamboo are resilient, cost-effective and have a lower whole life-cycle environmental impact. This paper firstly reviews the main causes of decay of bamboo: beetle, termite and fungal, and then discusses the efficacy of different treatments-both traditional and modern. Common misconceptions around the durability of bamboo and its preservation methods are corrected. Finally, the recently published framework for durability of bamboo within ISO 22156-Bamboo Structures, based on Use Classes, is presented.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: NOCMAT 2022 - 18th International Conference on Non-conventional Materials and Technologies
• Start Date: Jun 7, 2022
• End Date: Jun 23, 2022
• Acceptance Date: May 10, 2022
• Online Publication Date: May 22, 2022
• Publication Date: May 22, 2022
• Deposit Date: Aug 11, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 11, 2022
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6575090
• Keywords: Bamboo; durability; preservation; codes; ISO
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9851319
• Publisher URL: https://zenodo.org/record/6575090#.YvT95lTMJPY
• Additional Information: Durability of bamboo is one of the most important aspects to consider when designing and building with this nature-based material. Durable structures with bamboo are resilient, cost-effective and have a lower whole life-cycle environmental impact. This paper firstly reviews the main causes of decay of; bamboo: beetle, termite and fungal, and then discussed the efficacy of different treatments – both traditional and modern. Common misconceptions around the durability of bamboo and its preservation methods are corrected. Finally, the recently published framework for durability of bamboo within ISO 22156 – Bamboo Structures, based on Use Classes, is presented.