Bamboo as Building Material: Early Findings in Badaraksa Kidul Village [1] [2]
Usie Fauzia Anniza, S.T. Fransiska Mutiara Damarratri, S.T.
Architecture Sans Frontières Indonesia [1] [2] Email : usie.fauzia@gmail.com, m.damarratri@gmail.com
Abstract Sustainability aspect of bamboo as material does not only belong to modern scientific findings. The culture and history of Indonesia, specifically Sundanese society, indicate a deep understanding of its sustainability and benefit to the ecosystem. Aesthetic, strength, and flexibility of bamboo material support the extent of usage possibility. However, modernization of materials in industrial goods has progressively transformed the long standing bamboo culture in many areas. Bamboo sustainability strongly correlates to ecology, economy and sociocultural aspects. The presence of bamboo clumps contribute to soil condition as well as fresh water availability. A society that connects their livelihood and activities around bamboo culture has the potential to preserve local nature, wisdom, and sufficiency. Bamboo planting and harvesting management support macro sustainability issues. Badaraksa Kidul is a kampung of settlements on the hillsides located in the south of Bandung city. Its suburban and rural transitional context is formed by many elements. The culture and economy of the community are transforming continuously due to modernization. Bamboo plantings in its hills have great potentials to contribute to the transformation in a positive way. The research is primarily directed to find the influence of bamboo plantings in ecology, economy and sociocultural aspects in Badaraksa Kidul. The finding is formulated to appraise the potential of the community to be a self-sufficient and sustainable bamboo supplier community. Bamboo still plays important role but only to few residents and not yet extensively to the whole community. The challenge is the insufficient understanding of bamboo potentials. Another critical point in the transformation is the land use conversion after private sector acquired lands into plantations and mining sites. Bamboo of great quantity had faced clearance to make way for new land uses. Ecologically, bamboo clumps in Badaraksa Kidul have impact to soil condition and ecosystem. The residents now face fresh water availability problem. Badaraksa Kidul store potentials to be bamboo supplier community, observed from the ecology, economy and sociocultural aspects. Development of entrepreneurship, knowledge intensification, and on the ground bamboo plantings treatments could then be identified. Bamboo culture would help the upgrading of ecosystem in a kampung-scale. Key Words: bamboo, potentials, community, self-sufficient, ecology, economy, sociocultural, Badaraksa
Introduction The choice of bamboo as future construction material is new. In contemporary publications, bamboo earns the title of “green steel� due to its tensile strength and high flexibility, proportionate to its density. The main excellence of bamboo compared to other materials, though, lies on its sustainability. The regeneration age of its mature culm is relatively short, 2,5 to 4 years. The keyword sustainability was made known in Our Common Future, a 1987 report published by World Commission on Environment and Development. The document, known also as the Brundtland report, calls for three pillars of sustainable development; economic development, social equity, and environmental protection (Diagram 1). As there is no economy outside of the society (Flint, 2001), both society and economy system is also an intrinsic part of the environment.