(Part 3) + Chapter 5.0

In addition to its green benefits, bamboo processing procedures are fairly environmental friendly since the beginning. Accounting for jungle deforestation alone, the United Nations (UN) has announced in 2006 that it is responsible for 2.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide released yearly (Benjami, 2010). Looking into Malaysia, timber harvesting has always been a threat to the island of Borneo. It is hard to swallow the fact that our deforestation rate is three times faster than the rest of Asia combined (Max, 2011). This situation calls for a quick fix. According to professor of ecology Manuel Ruiz-Perez, except when replacing natural forests or very old plantations, bamboo actually comes with positive environmental balance. The gist is that bamboo matures and regenerates quickly unlike any typical tree. Therefore harvesting it can barely damage the environment. During the starch removal treatment, bamboo is smoked (see Image 3.9) without involving chemicals. Furthermore, the decay protection requires only soaking in boric salts (see Image 3.10), which again isn’t hazardous whatsoever. Malaysia is blessed with heavy rainfall and abundance of sunlight throughout the year, there is close to no doubt that bamboo can flourish easily. If it is planted locally, there will be no carbon footprint from shipment and preservatives, a key consideration when one speaks of green. To make things happen, the public has to first acknowldge, which subsequently leads to the surge in commercial value. Ultimately, farmers and developers will invest because it’s profitable. By virtue of its low heat retention, a bamboo building saves a lot on cooling throughout its operating life. After all said and done, it is clearly environmentally responsible to the end of its life cycle.

Image 3.9

Smoking Bamboo

Image 3.10

Bamboo in Boric Salts

In at least one case, that of Green School (see Image 3.11, Image 3.12 and Image 3.13) in Bali, Indonesia, bamboo’s scientific advantages were exploited to their limits. As the name suggests, the award winning school educates students about environmental practices, renewable energy, and organic farming aside from the normal school syllabus. With no walls, the building relies completely on natural resources namely sunlight and breeze, in other words it is sustainable to the very detail. Regardless of that, bamboo was employed as the primary building material for the 7785 sq m big architecture, demonstrating bamboo’s remarkable construction strength. Perhaps the public is more easily convinced with a living model, there is a saying that goes “seeing is believing”. Apart from that, the school was constructed solely by Indonesian empirical builders. Elora Hardy, the architect behind, was fully aware of the locals’ bamboo expertise and thence made use of it. The strategy sets a good lesson for Malaysians, utilizing a material the local builders are familiar with, creating job opportunities while keeping bamboo architecture in Malaysia alive.

Image 3.11

Green School, Bali

Image 3.12

Interior View of Green School

Image 3.13

Interior View of Green School

-Incomplete-

5.0 Nourishing an Architectural Identity

When Malaysia declared her independence in 1957, nearly all architects were educated abroad. They believe local employers would better recognize their qualifications considering the standard and quality of Western education back then. However, there was a price to pay. Theories by iconic architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright were used as the basis of teaching therefore their works naturally became reference as the favourable trend of the time. When these graduates return, they spread the Western based Minimalist Style throughout the nation. Coincidentally during the same period of time, Malaysia was at her peak of economic and population growth. The restless need to keep up with it didn’t give architects the profusion of time to experiment architectures. Therefore, the foreign architecture style was employed all along, even today (see Image 5.1).

Image 5.1

Western Concept Housing in Malaysia

For the past fifty years, Mies’ Seagram Building (see Image 5.2) became the most commonly imitated building in the history of architecture. It has received much attention in the press, not all of it favourable, and it remains a prime object of architectural pilgrimage whether by students or practising architects. Even in Malaysia, poor imitations by architects with shallow comprehension have littered our cities. Is this repeated use of curtain wall sufficient to articulate the rich and diverse content of our nation?

Image 5.2

Seagram Building