TEMPLATE HOUSES, Ramboll
Ramboll is a leading engineering, design and consultancy company founded in Denmark in 1945. With 300 offices in 35 countries, Ramboll combines local experience with a global knowledge-base constantly striving to achieve inspiring and exacting solutions that make a genuine difference to their clients, the end-users, and society at large. The Template House project seeks to provide locals with a blueprint for homes that are resistant to collapse in earthquakes, but also sustainable and affordable. Applying latest digital design capabilities to naturally abundant bamboo, Ramboll is partnering with local NGO Grenzeloos Milieu and University College London (UCL) to design replicable bamboo homes for use on the earthquake prone island of Lombok and beyond. The company hopes to encourage a move away from esoteric construction methods like concrete and brickwork that can require detailed knowledge.
In 2018, Lombok was struck by several earthquakes measuring up to magnitude 7. Following the devastation, Els Houttave, founder of the Lombok based charity Grenzeloos Milieu was determined to do all she could to prevent history repeating itself, therefore she reached out to her friend Xavier Echegaray, a bridge engineer at Ramboll. He used Ramboll’s ‘Making a Difference Network’, to engage fellow engineers, and just weeks after the quakethe Ramboll Foundation funded structural engineer Marcin Dawydzik on a fact-finding mission to Lombok.
What was apparent to those familiar with the area was the abundant bamboo forests that surrounded the devastated villages. The properties of bamboo as a building material have been known for centuries. Lightweight, strong, affordable and sustainable, it could provide a solution to the island’s housing needs. Indeed, Grenzeloos Milieu’s bamboo offices had survived the quake with only minor damage to the concrete foundations.
Marcin and Xavier applied Ramboll’s expertise in design with sustainable materials to create a blueprint for safe, affordable and attractive housing using locally sourced bamboo. Click here to know more about the project and explore the bamboo house design with a 3D model!
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