2 Jul 2010

The Bamboo Mission - Making Northern Thailand Greener

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Field trip with Northern Green to a Bamboo factory in Chiang Mai
 A huge bamboo gate welcomes us to a fantastic bamboo factory. Row after row with bamboo pools stands drying on the factory grounds. We can also see a beautiful prototype pavilion created with ancient weaving bamboo techniques from Thailand. The sala, as it is called in thai, is designed by the 24 hours architecture group in Holland. It looks like a spaceship in bamboo. - Low tech is becoming high tech, explains Mark Emery, an Australian Bamboo consultant.
 
Mark has travelled extensively since he left Australia. In the last couple of years Mark has worked with bamboo projects in Colombia, Bali and recently Koh Kud (Kood) Island Thailand, where he made an impressing bamboo bridge for the famous Six Senses Resort. In Chiang Mai he is currently assisting, with his unique knowledge to build a Green School out of sustainable materials, such as bamboo and adobe clay (soil and binding rice husks). 

“Thai people don’t have a culture of constructing houses in bamboo, but they use bamboo for plenty of other things.  So we start from their bamboo basket weaving traditions and adapt these skills to constructing houses”.

The International school due to open in 2011, not far from Hang Dong golf course, is founded by an Austrian couple who aims to implement green thinking into the teachings of the school, as well as having the lowest carbon footprints of any international schools in the world.


Bamboo is a durable and timeless material as long as it is protected from strong heat and rain, means Mark. Bamboo has got a slightly bad reputation, but that’s because people don’t know how to use it. One of the most important things about bamboo is to collect it at the right age. The bamboo being used here  has to be at least three years old. It’s collected from the hills surrounding Chiang Mai and brought to the factory by the villagers.
Later on, hopefully we can move the production out direct to villages, Mark explains.

Enjoy the pictures from this field trip of  the Northern Green group. We hope to pay a visit to the school in the near future and show how the project is developing.

- You will find the factory on Canal Rd, On your left side coming from Mae Hia market Not far from The Royal Ratchapreuk Expo. Just look for the impressive bamboo and straw gate. It’s hard to miss really :)

Check out more of Mark's work on Bambooroo | Facebook.

© Copyright All Rights Reserved. Text: Per Sundberg, Photos: Jan Friman