Development and Promotion of Bamboo Housing Technology in East Africa

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 .