Blue Temple’s Housing NOW: Using Bamboo for Low-Cost Housing

Housing NOW is a project started by Blue Temple in 2019. The proposed architectural project is a housing typology implemented in a series of completed constructions, therefore, the project presents a constellation of manifestations of the same housing typology.

In this project, Blue Temple explores the wonders of bamboo design and construction, actively taking part in the transition from a vernacular construction technique to an engineered one.

Amongst all existing bamboo species accessible on the local market, tiny bamboo represents an untapped, abundant and cost-effective resource. By utilizing this resource to build houses, the cost of a single unit can be reduced to that of a smartphone. During three years of research, Blue Temple refined and mastered the design; the findings have since been published in a series of academic papers on small-diameter bundle bamboo low-cost construction.

The construction system comprises interlocking small-diameter bundled bamboo structural frames, prefabricated in the organization’s bamboo workshop in Bago, a city located north of Yangon, in Myanmar. The frames are later shipped to the implementing site and are assembled in collaboration with the local community. This construction methodology reduces the construction of a single housing unit to a week while serving as an effective response to emergency housing needs in remote areas of the country.

The assembly of the structural frames at the implementing site, followed by the construction of finishes including walls, floors, and ceilings, is done in collaboration with the local community, with Blue Temple employing and training members of the community during the construction of their own homes. That has allowed the organization to create a network of trained workers from vulnerable communities to act as a deployable task force. This long-term collaborative approach creates new job opportunities for the workers, who can subsequently provide for their families.

Since the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, nearly 2 million people have been internally displaced in the country. Accordingly, Blue Temple’s architecture design studio is seeking support to scale up the production of low-cost bamboo housing for refugees in slums in Myanmar. Following three years of research, prototyping, and piloting, Blue Temple is currently in the midst of scaling production to increase housing access in vulnerable communities. Due to this, all forms of help are greatly appreciated.

Source: v2com newswire