Among the books I read during lockdown is ‘Booming Bamboo’. The online offer was hard to refuse as I could also get ‘Tomorrow’s Timber’ for a reduced price. It was a long 4-week wait as shipping was delayed due to the shut downs and restricted working but I finally got hold of ‘Booming Bamboo’. 

Book Title:        ‘Booming Bamboo’ - The (re)discovery of a sustainable material with endless possibilities.

Author:              Pablo van der Lugt

Publisher:          Jeroen van Oostveen, Materia Exhibitions BV Naarden, 

Published :        November 2017

Format:             Paperback, 192 Page(s), Printed on FSC certified paper

ISBN:                  9789082755206

Supported by:  INBAR and MOSO International BV

My first impressions when leafing through the book was that it felt like an expanded pocket book. This attracted me as it looked like an easy and enjoyable read as opposed a heavy and tedious one. The photos were well chosen and there were many illustrations in the book.

Booming Bamboo’ is well thought out and laid out. The language is kept simple and it avoids jargon or highly technical terminology. In fact some of the terminology may become standard as bamboo practitioners adopt the terms for these relatively new bamboo products.

The writing is succinct and delivered in good size chunks avoiding huge volumes of text.

There are not that many books of this genre and scope around. But of course it is more biased towards engineered bamboo although it does have sections on architecture and natural bamboo.

What are my take-homes?

One of the stand-outs for me is Chapter 5 - Bamboo Technology’ which explains how bamboo is processed from full culm to its various products and put forward the potential of engineered bamboo. A chapter that would interest architects and designers. Chapter 4 - Bamboo’s Environmental Sustainability is another solid chapter with clear graphs and figures. I enjoyed reading the ‘Debit’ and ‘Credit’ side of sustainability. I was surprised that the book also features a bamboo house built in Belgium (pg 142).

What can be improved?

This book actually has 208 pages and it covers a lot of ground and subject matter. Some sections are markedly shorter than the rest and could have been either lengthened or combined with others. I would have preferred more written on engineered bamboo processes and less of bamboo applications or current bamboo architecture projects. Illustrations although clear could be larger and graphic styleslightly more technical. Some basic cost indicators would have been useful for the engineered bamboo section.

Does it deliver on the book title?

For me, this book does deliver on its title. It does put forward a good case of how bamboo has re-emerged and it has laid out the many possibilities that bamboo has now and for the future. I do recommend it as a handy must-have for the book shelves or e-book drives of bamboo enthusiasts and practitioners. Well done, Dr. Pablo van der Lugt!

For more details:

‘Booming Bamboo’ has its own promotional website.

Review from Amazon/Google Books:

'Booming Bamboo' provides a comprehensive overview of the enormous potential of this sustainable resource. Not only for architecture and design but also for a multitude of other applications. After covering the ""bamboo basics"" (growth, properties, cultural history, industrialisation), the first part of the book introduces the many benefits of bamboo as a fast-growing, renewable resource. The second part presents the various ways in which bamboo can be transformed into many different exciting materials and fabrics.