International Bamboo Building Code

One billion people on the earth live in bamboo houses usually built without proper building standards. bamboo has certain advantages over other construction materials such as concrete, bricks and timber. Bamboo houses are much safer during earthquakes, landslides and flooding. Despites its valuable qualities, professional architects normally hesitate to use bamboo for construction purposes simply because of the absense of hte proper Bamboo Building Codes. Loans and Insurance are not available for hte bamboo constructions. Introduction of the Bamboo building code will open up a wide construction market for the bamboo and will promote bamboo industrial development, inspire new designs, technologies and expand architectural horizons.

The ideas of developing building standards for bamboo was developed during the bamboo workshop in Indian in 1988 followed by the 1995 meeting in Ubud. During the following year the work on building codes was implemented by a small group of volunteer headed by Dr Jules J. A. Janssen.

Very recently INBAR's Bamboo Building Draft International Standards (DIS 22156 and 22157) have been approved by the International Standard Organization. The draft is being finalized. The draft version are available here:

Bamboo structural design (http://www.bwk.tue.nl/bko/research/
Bamboo/ISO%20N313%2022156.doc)

Determination of physical and mechanical properties (http://www.bwk.tue.nl/bko/research/Bamboo/
ISO%20N314%2022157.doc)

Laboratory manual(http://www.bwk.tue.nl/bko/research/Bamboo/
ISO%20N315%20DTR.doc)

National Bamboo Building Code

On the basis of international bamboo building code, many countries have been working on national code. With the initiation of Bamboo Technologies, Hawaii State USA has already passed bamboo building code for its four counties. The code can be found in the following link (http://www.bamboocompetition.com/certification.html)and PDF file (http://www.inbar.int/housing/3ICCESR1636.pdf ).