Wonders of Bamboo

Blue Temple presented a bamboo low-cost housing in Myanmar. This is a part of Housing NOW project started by Blue Temple in 2019. The proposed architectural project is a housing typology implemented in a series of completed constructions.

Sport court
Photo credit: Alex Dyl

Overview
Photo credit: Nyan Zay Htet

Night view
Photo credit: Nyan Zay Htet

Night view
Photo credit: Alex Dyl

Blue Temple explores the wonders of bamboo design and construction, actively taking part in the transition from a vernacular construction technique to an engineered one.

Amongst all existing bamboo species accessible on the local market, tiny bamboo represents an untapped, abundant and cost-effective resource. By utilizing this resource to build houses, the cost of a single unit can be reduced to that of a smartphone. During three years of research, Blue Temple refined and mastered the design; the findings have since been published in a series of academic papers on small-diameter bundle bamboo low-cost construction.

Bamboo grid shell structure
Photo credit: Alex Dyl

Games
Photo credit: Nyan Zay Htet

Bamboo jungle
Photo credit: Nyan Zay Htet

Working with the Local

The construction system comprises interlocking small-diameter bundled bamboo structural frames, prefabricated in the organization's bamboo workshop in Bago, a city located north of Yangon. The frames are later shipped to the implementing site and are assembled in collaboration with the local community. This construction methodology reduces construction of a single housing unit to a week, while serving as an effective response to emergency housing needs in remote areas of the country.

Slum upgrade in Hmawbi
Photo credit: Raphaël Ascoli

Slum upgrade in Yangon
Photo credit: Raphaël Ascoli

Opening ceremony orphage in refugee camp
Photo credit: Raphaël Ascoli

Opening ceremony for a preschool in a refugee camp
Photo credit: Raphaël Ascoli

Preschool
Photo credit: Raphaël Ascoli

Orphanage for 30 kids
Photo credit: Raphaël Ascoli

The assembly of the structural frames at the implementing site, followed by the construction of finishes including walls, floors, and ceilings, is done in collaboration with the local community, with Blue Temple employing and training members of the community during the construction of their own homes. That has allowed the organization to create a network trained workers from vulnerable communities to act as a deployable task force. This long-term collaborative approach creates new job opportunities for the workers, who can subsequently provide for their family.

Since the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, nearly 2 million people have been internally displaced in the country. Accordingly, Blue Temple's architecture design studio is seeking support to scale up the production of low-cost bamboo housing for refugees in slums in Myanmar.

Blue Temple

Blue Temple is an architecture design studio based in Myanmar since 2017. The studio debuted with projects ranging from micro-architecture proposals to public space designs on an urban scale, to data-driven mapping projects on a national level.