Construction
The building was built by team of bamboo specialists from the Karen hilltribe from the Maeh Chaem district in Chiang Mai, supervised by Olav Bruin in his former role as project architect of 24H-architecture. By having a mix of young and old, the bamboo knowledge could be passed on from the experienced older men to the younger generation for whom the construction was a learning school at the same time.
The main structure has been made using Pai Tong bamboo (Dendracolamus asper) in lengths up to 9m and a diameter of 10-13cm. The secondary roof- and ‘belly’ structure is made from Pai Liang bamboo (Bambusa multiplex) in 4m lengths and a diameter around 5cm. Both types of bamboo come from plantations in the neighboring Thai province of Prachinburi.
All beams have been generated from a 3D computer model. For making the curved beams, the individual bamboos have been heated 1 hour in a specially developed steam oven, after which they were assembled in an adjustable formwork with a coordinate system, forming each of the more than 70 individually curved beams.
The structure uses a mix of modern and traditional joining techniques. Due to the heavy loads in the 12m high and 28m wide structure, bolted joints were used for the main structure. At these joints, the bamboo has been filled with a cement injection to prevent the bamboo from splitting.
For the secondary roof- and belly-structure, bamboo dowels were mainly used in combination with rattan which was winded around the bamboo bundles. The roof consists of a ceiling of split bamboo with a waterproof membrane on top, covered with bamboo shingles.
