Architect David Sands builds sustainable bamboo prefab homes…sometimes in only two days!
They say that everything is more beautiful in Hawaii, and that’s definitely true. You could even say that homes are greener and more sustainable there as well, most notably because of Bamboo Living Homes, a company whose mission is to protect the planet and carry on the tradition of using bamboo as building material. The company offers the world’s first and only LEED green building certified bamboo prefab homes, and it has been creating sustainable communities in and out of Hawaii for over 14 years.
Bamboo Living Homes is the brainchild of founder Jefree Trudeau and architect David Sands. They built their first prototype in 1996 in Maui, and since then they’ve build over 150 sustainable bamboo homes in the Hawaiian Islands, Caribbean, and the South Pacific. They decided to use bamboo as their main building material for a few reasons. One was that people have been building with bamboo since the dawn of civilization, and they wanted to continue that tradition to maintain balance with the earth. Bamboo is also the fastest growing plant on the planet, so it replenishes itself easily and creates more renewable material.
Here’s architect David Sands talking about the benefits of using bamboo for the prefab homes:
Bamboo 101: Strength & Longevity from Bamboo Living on Vimeo.
Bamboo 101: Strength & Longevity from Bamboo Living on Vimeo
The other advantage Bamboo Living has over other designers, besides using eco-friendly material, is that it takes only a few days to construct the home. Since the homes are prefabricated, they are assembled in parts and then shipped to a site. The homes are actually assembled in a Bamboo Works facility near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This facility helps support the families of 160 Vietnamese artisan craftspeople. Once you decide to purchase a home you get everything shipped to you, including the roof, interior and exterior walls, porch railings and floor panels. It basically a green home in a box!
Want to see how easy it is to put a bamboo home together? Check out this video:
Two homes in two days from Bamboo Living on Vimeo.
Two homes in two days from Bamboo Living on Vimeo.
Bamboo Living also lets you customize your home, so you can choose everything from what color you want the walls to be to whether or not you want vaulted ceilings. There are even different collections to choose from, including the Bamboo Commons Collection, the David Sands Signature Collection and the Custom Bamboodist. Oh, and you get a 20-year warranty on the green home.
Pretty cool stuff, don’t you think? If you’d like to keep up with David Sands and his bamboo-building crew you can “like” them on Facebook to see if they’re coming to a mainland near you!
