By Gemma Thomas
In June 2024, I headed to Rotterdam with my friend, colleague, and collaborator Orit Azaz to attend the Bouw met Bamboe.
What is Bouw met Bamboe?
A programme pulled together by a team of architects and engineers: Atelier Nomadic, Maria Piels architect, Summum and Walden.
“Bouw met Bamboe! was the first symposium in the Netherlands dedicated to exploring bamboo in architecture and construction. From June 19 to June 21, 2024, BlueCity in Rotterdam became a vibrant hub of knowledge and innovation. Our goal was to ignite a passion for bamboo as a sustainable building material among Dutch architects, designers, engineers, carpenters, farmers, building product manufacturers, and students. We were honored to host world-renowned experts in bamboo cultivation, design, construction, and structural engineering. Their lectures provided invaluable insights, helping us all gain confidence in working with this remarkable material. The workshops offered a wonderful opportunity to apply this knowledge practically. The exhibition was another highlight, showcasing innovative bamboo products and projects that demonstrate its potential in Dutch architecture. It was a fantastic platform for networking and idea exchange, bringing together a community of like-minded individuals.”
For more info about the programme see here: Bouw-met-Bamboe-_-Event-Magazine-Website.pdf
BlueCity was the venue which was a former Tropicana swimming/water park on the banks of the river.
Whilst at the event with colleagues I decided to have a couple of chats for the podcast Booming Brillant, with some speakers and attendees.
Here is the Booming Brilliant at Bouw met Bamboe podcast, featuring Jan Oprins who says:
“Listen to nature, learn from nature and of course use your knowledge and experience to, uh, To guide it and help it, but, um, don’t destroy it.”
“go for the things you believe in and and keep going and nothing is is easy often It’s there’s always something going wrong, but there are also a lot of things going well Yeah, so, um Yeah, keep going”
We meet Kevin Mersch, where he provided some insight to his journey to bamboo:
“An environmental engineer turned into IT professional. So I basically consult companies in how to become digital or work in a digital world. I spend my time or way too much time in front of the screen and Bamboo helps me get away from that.”
Wise insights from Susanne Lucas who has dedicated her life to understanding and championing Bamboo and forming the World Bamboo Organisation:
“people are kind of feeling like it’s this new material, even though it’s millennial. Uh, it’s just, humans have been using bamboo for thousands of years, but now people are seeing it in a new light and a new potential. And I think that’s, uh, I think that’s, unfortunately, climate change has made people realize that we cannot continue to treat the planet the way we’ve been treating it.”
A chat with colleague who I know through Imagine Bamboo, Hans Friederich, where we touch on the challenges of bamboo in Europe and the UK.
“We’re using bamboo as an industrial opportunity, as an agricultural crop. within a larger landscape. Um, and I think as long as we can explain that, that bad image of bamboo hopefully will disappear a bit.”
Thank you so much to Jan, Kevin, Hans and Susanne for their time and great to have chance to speak to them amongst a busy schedule. I know they are committed supporters to all the speakers so every moment was precious.
Images on this blog are from: Orit Azaz, Gemma Thomas, Ayca Ozum Sevinc, Regine van Limmeren,and Anand Shah.
To hear more of the conversation with Hans Friederich listen here:
