Bending Active System_ Bamboo Research Pavilion Using Robotic Arm and Steam Bending

Prototyping material and spanning system in Bamboo_ using robotic arms and steam-bending.

Bamboo, a material brimming with immense, yet largely unexplored, potential, particularly within the realm of architecture, stands as a testament to nature’s ingenuity. If we look at the current scenario, this fastest-growing, low-cost, carbon-sequestering natural resource remains an unconventional material, in the practice of Architecture, always given the peripheral roles of scaffoldings and at times more than that. This way the potential of such versatile material remains highly underutilized. It’s time to shift our perspective and explore the full potential of this protean material in the 21st century. Grown tremendously in the developing parts of the global south, tooling bamboo has predominately relied on traditional techniques. Bamboo embodies flexibility, stiffness, and efficiency in material distribution, yielding lightweight yet efficient systems. This nature’s extreme product offers high resistance to tensile stresses, buckling, and bending stresses and its elastic properties are remarkable. The research taps into these properties of bamboo to arrive at a spanning and spatial system that stems from its intrinsic properties. Traditional ways of using bamboo as a whole culm restrict the abilities of spanning, and bending, and make it more vulnerable to splitting. Bending activates the tensile capacity of the bamboo and allows for more efficient material distribution. Combining bamboo and digital fabrication enables radically unique and spatially versatile configurations. Digital fabrication with this irregular material is challenging but immensely rewarding, unlocking new possibilities for shaping this material. CNC routing can offer efficient and precise sectioning of bamboo culm and bending bamboo using robotic arms reduces the burden of custom Jig for each new bend profile. The research strives to derive material systems configured using variable cross-sections of bamboo culm across the length to explore spanning potential. Here variability in cross-sections responds to different positions, bending, loading conditions, and roles of members in the larger spanning system. The process of material distribution and designing, tooling, testing, prototyping, and true-scale fabrication is a meticulous endeavor that extends the sphere of architectural education. Working with low-carbon materials, and making architectural education more tacit, and hands-on align well with the pedagogy of the School of Architecture. The research allows a demonstration of the potential of this low-carbon material to inform and propel the practice of bamboo in different building systems and mainstream practices in areas where bamboo naturally grows. The current climate crisis necessitates a shift towards low-energy practices, and this research is a step in the right direction.