HILO -- Imagine growing the building material needed for your home in your own backyard. If architect David Sands and other visionaries with Bamboo Technologies have their way, you'll be able to do just that.
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Sands and his business partner Jeffree Trudeau set out 10 years ago to get the International Code Council (ICC) -- the organization responsible for U.S. building codes -- to approve bamboo as a structural building material. They succeeded last November when an ICC evaluation service report acknowledged that structural bamboo poles produced by Bamboo Technologies comply with building code provisions.
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 Now Sands and Trudeau are making their way around the islands familiarizing county building divisions with the Vietnamese variety of bamboo that got ICC approval -- Bambusa stenostachya -- in anticipation of applying for building permits.
Sands recently made a pitch for his and Trudeau's company and its product when he met with Mayor Harry Kim, Building Division Head Brian Kajikawa and four building inspectors on the Big Island.
David Sands stands on the porch of his Bamboo Thai Hale design in Haiku, Maui.>>>
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 Sands told county officials that Bamboo Technologies can build a home equipped with amenities like water and electrical at $150 per square foot. He said bamboo homes have been constructed on Maui for $120 per square foot.
I congratulate you for bringing us this far. For Hawaii, it provides an alternative -- plus the environmental aspect. I really hope this goes," Kim told Sands during the presentation on Jan. 21.
<<< David Sands and Mayor Harry Kim, January 21. |
Bamboo timber can reportedly be harvested every year after 7 years, compared to 30 to 50 years for trees, and it can yield 10 times more timber than trees grown in the same area. It also can regenerate without planting and it is said to generate 20 percent more oxygen than trees.
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Once the bamboo is harvested, the stalks are prepared for construction by knocking out of the center, dipping them in borate and then placing the stalks in a pressure treatment tank
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The bamboo poles can then be used as structural elements in walls, roofs and floor trusses, or split bamboo can face the plywood for aesthetics.
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Bamboo Technologies has been manufacturing its bamboo building materials at a factory in Vietnam for the past 10 years.
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The Maui-based company offers numerous prefabricated homes, studios and guest houses, including a 24-foot by 40-foot rectangular-shaped "plantation hale," a 12-sided "pavilion hale" with a 1,424 square-foot covered area, a 24-foot by 24-foot square "eco-home," and a octagon-shaped "homestead hale" with 620 square feet of covered area.
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Once an order is placed, Sands said homes are typically shipped within four months and can be assembled within three to five days.
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There have been about 20 bamboo homes constructed on Maui over the years through Bamboo Technologies obtaining conditional permits with the Maui Board of Appeals. At least three resorts in Vietnam, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, and China have used prefabricated homes for cottages, bungalows, and even treehouses over the years.
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Sands said Bamboo Technologies hopes to partner with a landowner on the Big Island who has enough property to cultivate bamboo and the means to develop homes here. Then the figures for constructing a bamboo home here could be even less than between $120 and $150 per square foot because the building material wouldn't need to be shipped.
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Bamboo Technologies has recently partnered with Maui Land and Pineapple (MLP) to cultivate bamboo for homes on its land on Maui after MLP representatives read an article citing Bamboo Technologies in a March 2004 issue of Honolulu Magazine and contacted Sands and Trudeau.
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Sands told County of Hawaii building inspectors Dwayne Inouye, Nani Masaki, Cris Miyao and Joy Matsumoto he wants to work closely with them when the first Bamboo Technologies structure eventually goes up on this island.
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"I would like to see the first one come up on this island. It will be interesting," responded Inouye, a building inspector based in Kona.
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Sands said they are "relatively easy" buildings to inspect, but he and Trudeau would be working on a training video for building inspections. After Sands met with county officials, he was expected to meet with a man in Hamakua interested in a bamboo home.
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