Using Bamboo to Build Sustainably

Bamboo is a traditional building material in tropical areas of the world where it grows in large amounts. The physical characteristics of bamboo make this highly renewable material suitable for solving a number of problems of sustainable building, mainly in the civil and infrastructural sectors as it can provide a lightweight structural member used for supporting buildings. In recent years, bamboo has received new attention as a substitute of wood and steel in several building projects. Innovative technological and engineering developments now make it possible to use bamboo for public infrastructures as well as roadway bridges construction. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate the feasibility and convenience in many situations of such infrastructures by means of some practical issues taken from the experiences of the authors like: the presentation of design concepts and construction-maintenance techniques; the illustration of the results of recent research developed in Italy on the layout and strength of structural joints; the description of some recent structures built by applying the aforementioned concepts.