Reaching the Next Level in Bamboo Construction
To date, Cement Bamboo Frame Technology (CBFT) has been primarily used in the Philippines and Nepal to build affordable homes for families in need. The Hilti Foundation's green and disaster resilient construction technology has now been further developed, showing high potential to be used in larger community buildings to provide livelihoods for families from disadvantaged backgrounds and their communities. Together with Base Bahay Foundation and other local partners, the Hilti Foundation introduced its Cement Bamboo Frame Technology (CBFT) for special structures and recently inaugurated a Weaving Center in Batangas, Philippines.
Green building technology now for large structures
“Larger buildings using bamboo as the only structural element and tested in our labs for disaster resilience are the next step in our journey to make bamboo a green alternative for standard building solutions,” explains Johann Baar, Director Affordable Housing & Technology at the Hilti Foundation, adding, “We call them Special Structures with Impact because, like all our social housing projects, the larger structures will have a positive impact on the lives of families in need and their communities.”
This man lives in a CBFT settlement in the Philippines.
The Hilti Foundation is already working on the next larger community buildings. A food processing center for banana chips is being built in rural areas of the Philippines, allowing families to process the fruit themselves instead of shipping the unprocessed bananas directly to Manila. Another project is a market hall in the Metro Manila area, located near a housing project that the Foundation built a few years ago for families and single mothers with disabled children. This facility will provide a better and healthier income opportunity for families currently working in garbage dumps. Many other facilities such as schools and community halls will follow.
Green, disaster-resilient and local
CBFT has many benefits. Bamboo naturally keeps buildings cool, and its flexibility allows them to withstand earthquakes of magnitude 7-8 and typhoons with winds of up to 300 km/h. The technology has also been tested for its resistance to fire and insect infestation, and its structures are very durable and resilient.
With an estimated lifetime of 60 years, the environmental impact of a CBFT house is 60% less than a conventional concrete house, according to a life cycle analysis by ETH Zurich. This correlates to a reduction in carbon emissions of nine tons during that time, that's even better than wood in terms of environmental impact. Another benefit is that bamboo is a very renewable and cost-effective local resource. With the inflation rate for building materials in the Philippines at 9.1% in February 2023, easy access to local materials without high import and transportation costs is a great advantage and growth opportunity.
However, CBFT still has some limitations: So far, the technology is mainly used for two-story buildings and in rural areas or cities in the countryside. This is because bamboo must first be included in national building codes to be recognized as a suitable construction material. Luis Lopez, the Base Bahay Foundation's technical director, is working with the authorities in the Philippines and Nepal on this and expects it to happen this year.
Creating a local bamboo industry
The national building code will help introduce green and disaster resilient bamboo to the market as an established construction material, including for-profit markets. CBFT is much more than a construction material for poor people. It is green, local, renewable, disaster-resilient and durable. The special structure projects aim to demonstrate to entrepreneurs that bamboo is not only made for NGOs and social work, but also offers interesting business opportunities along the value chain. Harvesting, treatment of the poles, manufacturing of prefabricated walls for houses or larger structures, and specialized contractors overseeing the constructions. The special structures initiative is a big step toward developing an entire bamboo industry.
“We are a nonprofit foundation, that’s our focus. We always see our impact buildings, whether they are social housing or the larger structures, as an aspect of green and disaster resilient building with bamboo, a technology that we are consciously investing in. But our CBFT can do so much more,” says Johann Baar. He explains that the idea is to create entrepreneurial models for farms and companies that cover all aspects of green bamboo construction at a profitable level for the different market segments: for-profit construction, self-managed construction, social housing, and special structures with impact, ultimately making it available to the poorest on a sustainable level. “So, we can really focus on research & development, on education, on new projects and working on national building codes. Toward our goal of becoming the best bamboo university in the world.”
CBFT – disaster resilient construction technology
For over 5,000 years, bamboo has been used as a cheap and easy to access construction material in many countries of the Global South. However, pure bamboo structures are not durable enough to withstand the frequent disasters in the region, such as typhoons and earthquakes. But Hilti Foundation's green and disaster resilient Cement Bamboo Frame Technology (CBFT) has transformed bamboo from a low-tech raw material into a high-tech building resource for safe and sustainable construction.
CBFT – high-tech bamboo technology
Inspired by ancient Latin American building techniques, CBFT combines Asian bamboo construction traditions with the highest European standards in timber construction. The unique, prefabricated, and sustainable frame system of treated load-bearing bamboo with metal connections and mortar-cement plaster enables the construction of stronger homes in less time.
CBFT – green construction technology
The technology has been tested for resistance to earthquakes, typhoons, fire and insect infestation, and structures with CBFT exhibit significant durability and resilience. With an estimated lifetime of 60 years, the environmental impact of a CBFT house is 60% less than a conventional concrete house, according to a life cycle analysis by ETH Zurich. This correlates to a reduction in carbon emissions of nine tons during that time. Another significant benefit is that bamboo is a highly renewable and cost-effective local resource.