Bamboo Pergola
The design and construction of a covered bamboo pergola, using traditional materials and methods.
A World in Lockdown
Coronavirus changed our lives in ways we could never have imagined. Things we took for granted, like being able to spend time with family and friends, were taken away from us. As the weather cooled post-summer, socialising outdoors became harder — what we needed was a heated shelter in our garden.
Authenticity in Design
One of the things I value most in design is Authenticity, a deep-rooted respect for the materials, crafts, and cultures embodied within a design. I spent many hours educating myself on traditional bamboo construction before designing a structure made entirely from bamboo, lashed together with natural palm fibre twine. A single piece of sleek engineered fabric would stretch across the top to form a waterproof roof, elegantly contrasting the traditional structure with an amusing sense of postmodernist irony.
The Beauty of Transience
Without any drilled holes, glued joints or permanent fixings, the bamboo's lashings can be cut and the structure disassembled back into a pile of 2m bamboo poles, ready to be reconstructed into another shape, in another place, on another day. There is something beautiful about Transience in design, perhaps a sense of liberation, or of endless possibility — there is certainly a contentment that comes with accepting the impermanence of life.