Amphibia BASE

Bamboo is regarded as a highly renewable and versatile material for several applications ranging from bikes and kitchenware to flooring, scaffolding and indigenous structures in developing countries. There are, however, temporary and traditional low-tech uses that do not fully exploit bamboo's remarkable features. Bamboo has a specific stiffness comparable to steel (25 ± 0.5 m²s^-2) and a high strength to weight ratio. It can grow from zero to 25 m in six months and — in a five-year period — capture six times more carbon than a 100-year-old oak tree. A shift on bamboo processing technologies is required if bamboo is to be considered as a truly sustainable and high performing mainstream material and alternative to wood. Recent research results on state-of-the-art bamboo manufacturing technologies have demonstrated that there is an untapped potential for developing engineered bamboo products with improved mechanical and physical properties and reduced carbon footprint. This talk will present the progress, challenges and future goals of this research started at the University of Bath and now led by UK start-up Amphibia BASE with support from the Ned Jaquith Foundation, Colciencias and other sponsors.

Ned Jaquith Foundation