Myanmar’s Bamboo Breakthrough Finds New Home In Madagascar

Engineers and architects are now using of bamboo construction know-how from prefabricated housing in Myanmar to build a much large structure in Madagascar.

Raphaël Ascoli, founder of Yangon-based architecture design studio Blue Temple explains that he was working in Japan as an architect for a corporate design firm, before quitting and moving to Myanmar seven years ago to specialize in small-diameter bamboo construction and scaling-up the production of prefabricated bamboo low-cost housing units for internally displaced people (IDP) and informal settlements.

“Small diameter bamboo is abundant on the local market; this species was never used in construction because of its slenderness, but bundled in large groups, it can become a strong structural element,” he says.

Ascoli explained that after having experimented with this technique for a couple of years, his team was building houses for the price of a smartphone, about 1000 dollars.

“Today we have built over 14 housing units in IDP camps and informal settlements such as an orphanage, a preschool, a community center, and houses,” he says, adding that bamboo can change the carbon footprint of the construction industry.

Now Ascoli is now working with Esteban Morales, a Colombian civil/structural engineer and founder of Bamboo Engineers, to bring this bamboo technology to a 550 square meter building in Tamatave (Toamsina), Madagascar.

“We are currently nearing the completion of the structural design for a massive pavilion in Madagascar, primarily constructed from bamboo sourced from Myanmar,” Morales says, adding that the design took into account wind forces associated with Category 5 cyclones and used wind tunnel modeling.

“This collective effort ensures that the bamboo structure behaves appropriately in the face of events such as earthquakes, cyclones, and more,” Morales says, “This project has presented a tremendous challenge for us as engineers and architects, no only due to the unconventional nature of the structure but also because of the species of bamboo, which is sparsely documented in technical literature.”

Housing NOW, the Myanmar housing project led by Blue Temple, has been recognized by MIT Solve in their Ecosystems and Housing category.

From Myanmar to Madagascar

Ascoli says that the start of the construction in Madagascar is planned for April 2024.

“It is very exciting to see how innovation in Myanmar can have immediate applications in other parts of the world such as in Madagascar,” he says, “Market-induced low-tech innovation in such an environment can have a tremendous impact on shaping the country’s development.”

Morales explains that people who grew up in the Global South have firsthand knowledge of their fellow citizens’ needs.

“From the fields of science, technology, and engineering, we already know how to address the inhumane issue of housing deficits affecting millions of families,” Morales says, “Let’s continue our research, but let’s also act urgently with the knowledge we already possess: the time to act is now!”

Housing Solutions

Another young person from the Global South using their STEM background to develop affordable housing solutions is Rwandan environmental chemist Emmanuel Tuyisenge.

Tuyisenge says his long-term objective is to provide solutions for affordable housing, with the goal to offer houses that are tailored to the needs and financial capacities of both middle- and low-income earners in Rwanda.

“When I started my company TEMACO, I was among the very first ones to venture into the production of concrete construction materials because at that time, pavers were not very much used here in Rwanda,” he says, adding that a $34,100 loan from nonprofit lending platform Kiva allowed the company to get going.

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