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The construction during the preparation
for the first local public fair
One primary example was the approval by the German authorities
of bamboo as a building material for the ZERI Pavilion. A
full-size prototype was built in Manizales (Colombia) and was
subjected to static and fire resistance testing. The
preservation technique in that case was smoking of the dried
stalks in special smoke-rooms.
Bamboo
constructions are anti-seismic because of their high elasticity.
In essence, bamboo can be described as a natural building
material with a great degree of sustainability, and
close-to-zero environmental impact even when used on a large
scale. This allows for the almost complete satisfaction of the
demand for self-construction homes involving the cultivation of
building materials.
The
Pavilion in Vergiate
The
construction of the bamboo pavilion in Vergiate, Varese, near
the Italian-Swiss border, was the result of a ‘learning by
doing’ proposal promoted and produced by the EMISSIONIZERO
association. Inspired by the ZERI Pavilion at the Expo 2000 in
Hanover, which exalted and celebrated the characteristics of
bamboo - a giant grass and not a tree! - the association in
Italy examined the interest in furthering knowledge in
bio-architectural building construction and in particular some
academic exponents of the B.E.S.T. department of th Faculty of
Architecture of the Politecnico of Milan.
Bamboo
is interesting because it is beautiful, resistant, flexible,
versatile, renewable, sustainable, easy to process and reliable.
At the beginning of 2002, EMISSIONIZERO looked for a partner,
preferably governmental, interested in housing the training
initiative ‘Building with Bamboo’, who would supply an area
for the construction of a public building to be built during a
workshop as a permanent structure.
The
task was not an easy one but finally, in the summer of 2002, it
sparked the interest of the City Council of Vergiate. The
council’s plans included the re-structuring of an area
traditionally destined to the town festivals. The site, called
Bosco delle Capre (the Goats’ forest), is located on the edge
of a chestnut forest in the Ticino National Park.
In
July of the same year, EMISSIONIZERO and the City Council signed
an agreement for the construction. |
