ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: This paper presents a scientific documentation of the extensive work carried out by Dr. Sudhakar and his students on ‘Bamcrete’, (bamboo concrete combination) housing applications with special emphasis to the Bamboo bows as load bearing elements of buildings, in a tribal belt in Khammam district, Andhra Pradesh, India at Haritha Ecological Institute. The work spaned over 18 years in their search of building material that can be grown in 4 to 6 years. The concept of the bamboo bow with one horizontal tie and two cross ties evolved out of a 10th class students’ experiment in 1988 at the institute. It was found that Dendrocalamus strictus, a widely available species with thick wall could be easily bent into bows which are strong enough to take the roof loads with spans of over 6 m in the first experimental structure in 1989. After four years of observation of the structure, the group developed 7.3 m span bamboo bows with one horizontal and two cross ties and produced over 600 of them to build nearly 2000 m2 area in 1994. Most structures have barrel roofs of corrugated GI sheets that hug the bamboo bows while a few have conventional sloped thatch. Since then, the group has been living in and using these buildings. The bamboo bows are still in excellent condition after 12 years with no additional need for maintenance. Subsequently ferro-cement band as a cost effective rigid tie between bamboos has been developed and used in bamboo bows which are separated vertically resulting in stiffened roof load bearing elements. Currently scientific validation of some of these concepts is being carried out at IIT Delhi and efforts are on to disseminate the technology to selected institutions and NGO’s for larger use.
