The strength and availability of bamboo give it the potential to be as dominant in construction as concrete and steel, argues Atelier One engineer Chris Matthews in this interview.
"This idea that we have a sheet of rigid, extremely polished buildings, built from all kinds of steel and concrete, it has to change," Matthews told Dezeen.
"Bamboo has a real part to play as a low-carbon material, and it needs to be part of the toolkit that we have moving forward," he continued. "It's going to be a major player."
"The speed of growth is amazing"
Matthews spoke to Dezeen from the London office of British engineering firm Atelier One, where he is an associate director specialising in structural bamboo.
Bamboo is an extremely fast-growing species of giant grass that grows abundantly, quickly and cheaply around the world. Atelier One believes so much in its potential to become a dominant construction material that it has a team dedicated to its use in architecture. While wood takes approximately 30 years to grow before being harvested as structural timber, a bamboo culm takes just three years.
Top image: Chris Matthews is an engineer at Atelier One where he specialises in bamboo. Above: his firm was among those to work on The Arc at the Green School Bali 
"The speed of growth is amazing," Matthews explained. "And the other wonderful thing is that you can grow bamboo on degraded land," he continued.
"Land that wouldn't...