BAMBOO LIVING
ABOUT US
Since 1995, Bamboo Living has become a leader in providing artisan-quality bamboo homes and innovative building products made from bamboo, one of the most rapidly renewable resources on the planet. Bamboo Living has designed and manufactured nearly 400 homes in locations around the world.
WE'RE THE FIRST AND ONLY COMPANY IN THE WORLD OFFERING PERMIT-READY BAMBOO HOMES THAT MEET INTERNATIONAL BUILDING STANDARDS.
OUR HISTORY
THE EPIPHANY
A MOMENT OF BRILLIANCE IN A BAMBOO FOREST
On an afternoon in the early 1990s, Jeffree Trudeau, a carpenter with a life-long dedication to sustainable living, was walking through a bamboo forest on Maui when he had an epiphany—it was time to find a better way to build. In another location on Maui, David Sands, an architect, was deeply concerned with the amount of lumber required to design and build his own home, despite using as many reclaimed and recycled materials as possible. David recalls seeing the truck of lumber in his driveway and immediately thinking back to a time he had hitchhiked the Pacific Northwest and witnessed a countryside devastated by logging.
Shortly thereafter, the two met and shared the same dream of finding an alternative building material to lumber, and broadening its use globally. Bamboo Living was co-founded by the two, and has been persistently striving to achieve this mission ever since.
INSPIRATION STRIKES
TAKING LESSONS FROM THE WORKS OF SIMÓN VÉLEZ & LINDA GARLAND
David along with his friend and builder, Jeffree Trudeau, had seen the work of renowned Colombian architect Simón Vélez and legendary Irish interior designer Linda Garland, both famous for their innovative use of bamboo as a building component.
Linda Garland was the founder and president of the Environmental Bamboo Foundation, an institution that has been instrumental in the development of the modern use of bamboo throughout Indonesia and beyond. David met with Ms. Garland at her bamboo estate in Bali and became inspired by the potential of bamboo. Jeffree then assisted with the World Bamboo Congress held at Ms. Garland’s estate the next year. These events served as catalysts for David and Jeffree to develop their own bamboo innovations.
Image: "The Bridge House" on Linda Garland's estate in Bali
THE FIRST ITERATION
BAMBOO LIVING'S FIRST SINGLE STRUCTURE
After receiving inspiration from the high concept work of Simón Vélez and Linda Garland, David and Jeffree set a goal to bring bamboo to regular homebuilders. The first bamboo home David and Jeffree built was for Kutira Decosterd on Maui, a pivotal project for the company. The structural elements for this first home were prefabricated locally with the idea of developing a scalable method of factory-built prefabrication for future projects. This first project was published in the Italian magazine, Brava Casa.
Today, all of our homes are prefabricated at our factory in Vietnam using those same techniques.
Initial building permits were difficult and lengthy to obtain since there was no building code standard for the use of structural bamboo in the United States. As a result, Bamboo Living began pursuing the development of a building code standard for bamboo.
Image: Kutira Decosterd's Pacific Fijian home on Maui
A PIONEERING JOURNEY
OUR 7-YEAR PROCESS TO BECOME INTERNATIONAL CODE COMPLIANT
Founder David Sands took bamboo through a rigorous 7-year process to meet international building code standards. David worked diligently with green builders, researchers, universities, engineers, and bamboo farmers to innovate structures that could be adapted to Western standards.
As a result, Bamboo Living developed the first ever International Code Council (ICC) Evaluation Services Report which was first issued in December of 2004. This pioneering effort was helped by the participation of the Vice President of ICC on the INBAR (International Network for Bamboo and Rattan) building code committee headed up by Professor Jules Janssen of Eindhoven University in the Netherlands. Today, we are the only company in the world providing bamboo structures with permits. Bamboo Living has spent the last 23 years pioneering and promoting the use of bamboo in the United States and other parts of the world.
Image: Bamboo Living Founder David Sands relaxes at his home
OUR PROVEN METHOD
NEARLY 400 BAMBOO STRUCTURES BUILT AROUND THE WORLD
Bamboo Living developed a method of prefabrication that allows bamboo construction to meet the requirements of the world’s most stringent building codes. Prefabricated or “prefab” homes are manufactured inside a controlled environment in sections that are easy to ship and capable of being re-assembled on site. To date, Bamboo Living has designed and manufactured nearly 400 homes in Hawai'i and around the world.
Benefits of our prefabrication method include:
- Expedited onsite assembly time
- Great opportunities for multi-unit projects
- Ability to exact quality control & engineering for safety
- Built by skilled artisans and craftspeople
- Lowers impact on the project site & construction waste
Image: The Pohoiki model being assembled at our factory
THE MAGIC OF PREFABRICATION
SUSTAINABILITY
There is a tremendous impact caused by conventional building practices. Every bamboo home that goes into production saves about 10 acres of forest from destruction. Over the past 23 years Bamboo Living’s use of bamboo has saved hundreds of thousands of trees, equivalent to roughly 4000 acres of forest.
Bamboo Living’s mission is to protect and restore our planet by pioneering the use of timber-grade structural bamboo as a building material. Unlike most lumber, when grown with restorative agricultural techniques, the more bamboo we use for construction, the better it is for the environment. This is due to carbon capture, avoided deforestation, and minimizing the amount of land used.
LEED CERTIFIED
LEADERSHIP IN ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
The LEED green building certification program stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.” LEED green homes save energy and protect the environment by using green building materials and renewable resources, such as bamboo. As a proud leader and LEED-certified green home builder, Bamboo Living promotes reducing environmental disturbance and construction waste.
LEED CERTIFIED
LEADERSHIP IN ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
The LEED green building certification program stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.” LEED green homes save energy and protect the environment by using green building materials and renewable resources, such as bamboo. As a proud leader and LEED-certified green home builder, Bamboo Living promotes reducing environmental disturbance and construction waste.
