Abstract:
With an a
verage
yearly
urbanization rate of 3.5
%, slums
have become
dominant settlement
type
s
across
Africa
.
Identifying
local, environmentally sustainable and affordable
building
materials
is a
priority.
The
refore,
INBAR
implemented “
Development and Promotion of Bamboo
Housing Technology in East Africa
”
,
with
the goal of assess
ing bamboo’s potential to meet
regional
housing
needs in a low
-
cost, eco
-
friendly manner.
T
his
project built one conventional
and one modern bamboo bu
ilding in both Kenya and Uganda,
trained over 60 people on
bamboo cultivation, management and cons
truction
, and
conducted
feasibility,
value chain
and
su
stainability
stud
ies on Ethiopian bamboo construction
.
Th
is
increase
d
civil society
awareness
on bamboo’s potential as a construction material
;
two universities
adopt
ed
bamboo
construction in their curriculum
s
.
We
also found that
mid/
low
-
income urban
bamboo
housing
and tourism lodges
can be
economically viable
in Ethiopia.
However
, barriers
still
remain to
mainstreaming bamboo construction
. There
fore,
further research
is needed
to 1)
promote
government institutional and
policy
support and integrat
ion
with
the private sector, 2)
integrate
bamboo with local building materials and
promote a broader range of bamboo construction
projects
,
3
) prepare
bamboo
building codes a
nd construction product standards,
and 4)
assess
resource management and water requirements
of
supplying
bamboo on an industrial scale
for
construction
.
