Mari Miranda has been investigating the ecological benefits of bamboo since enrolling in University of Southern Queenslands Master of Engineering in 2017. An engineering officer by trade, Mari said green building material could be the solution to skyrocketing construction costs and play a key role in Australias efforts to reduce carbon emission by 2030.
Bamboo is a durable, affordable and highly renewable building material and poles apart from timber when it comes to its sustainable and eco-friendly credentials, Mari said. Bamboo forests can help mitigate climate change due to its fast sequestration of carbon and converting its poles to bamboo products such as a construction material will further lock the carbon it stored. It also has significant mechanical properties suitable for structural applications that make it more attractive than other go-to building materials its cheap, its light and its strong.
Stronger than the widely used timber in Australia, bamboo takes just three to five years to grow and unlike timber, doesnt have to be uprooted and replanted as it grows back after its harvested.
In recent years, bamboo products and goods have become increasingly popular in Australian homes, but a lack of building regulations for bamboo makes it difficult to build major buildings or structures in the country. Mari was born and raised in the Philippines where bamboo plays a significant role in Filipino culture and daily lives. Some of her fondest memories as a child were the days she spent at her grandparents bamboo-made house. Her wish now is to see bamboo recognized as a mainstream construction material.
Bamboo is the fastest growing and most versatile plant in the world, but Australia has yet to realize the enormous potential of bamboo culms (poles) which could help solve the nations housing and climate crises, Mari said. There are lots of bamboo structures in Colombia, Indonesia and China, so if they can build bamboo structures there, why cant we build them here?
For her resear...