Coventry Uni at heart of cross-Atlantic bamboo construction project
BAMBOO is set to be the focus of a $200,000 research project co-led by academics at Coventry University and funded by the British and US governments.
The research – which is backed by the UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the US Department of State through the Global Innovation Initiative – will bring together world-leading experts in sustainable design to explore the use of bamboo as an urban construction material.
Coventry University and the University of Pittsburgh will co-lead a team of civil engineering and design specialists in carrying out extensive testing and analysis of the effectiveness of bamboo as a safe construction resource.
The two-year ‘Bamboo in the Urban Environment’ project was one of only 14 across the world to win funding as part of the Global Innovation Initiative, which aims to boost research collaborations between the UK, the US and other less well-developed nations.
Coventry and Pittsburgh will also work with Bogor Agricultural University (Indonesia), the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (China) and several industry partners in the UK and USA.
Undergraduate and graduates from each of the institutions will have the chance to participate in the research, with students from Coventry’s civil engineering and architecture courses getting involved through the university’s Engineering and Computing Building.
Bamboo can grow up to 30 metres in length in six months, and can be matured for structural purposes within three years – a process which lends it superior mechanical properties to oak and puts it on an equal footing with steel in terms of tensile strength.
David Trujillo, senior lecturer in civil engineering at Coventry University and one of the project’s leaders, said: “Bamboo is one of the world’s oldest construction resources, dating back thousands of years, but we haven’t come close to fully exploiting its potential as a sustainable alternative to current industry materials and techniques.
“This project is chiefly about advancing our understanding of bamboo’s capabilities so that we can harness them to help reduce costs and improve safety in housing in lagging and developing countries, or those which are particularly at risk from natural hazards.”
