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Monday, November 11, 2019, 15:47
The virtues of bamboo
By Yang Han in Hong Kong
Monday, November 11, 2019, 15:47 By Yang Han in Hong Kong

Revered architect is an advocate for the sustainable and environmentally friendly ‘gift from nature’

Bamboo was used in the interior design of this basketball court at The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Visitors to Martin Tam Tin-fong’s studio in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district are immediately greeted by a faint scent of bamboo.

Almost everything in the architect’s studio is made of bamboo — from chairs and desks to bookshelves, even name cards. Air purifiers, a common feature in Hong Kong offices, have been replaced with bowls of bamboo charcoal to freshen up the space. 

“As an architect, I always felt something was missing in the construction industry, until I first got in touch with bamboo about 10 years ago,” said Tam, founder and CEO of Able Mart. To him, a well-known industry expert in Hong Kong, bamboo is a sustainable construction material that will help the industry go “green”.

Commonly found in Africa, Asia and Central and South America, bamboo is a woody grass that grows in tropical, subtropical and parts of temperate regions. As a major non-wood forest product, it is receiving increasing attention as a substitute for wood due to its economic and environmental value. 

With a career in the construction industry spanning nearly five decades, Tam has played a key role in the planning and design of a wide range of projects. 

Hong Kong’s Central Plaza, once the tallest building in Asia when it was completed in 1992, is among his most outstanding works. On the Chinese mainland, as a former executive director of Sun Hung Kai Properties (China), Tam was in charge of the design of Beijing apm — a shopping mall and office building in Wangfujing, in the heart of the capital.

Tam has long advocated the concept of sustainable and environmentally friendly architecture. Back in 2002, he designed the first Hong Kong residential premises to achieve the highest rating of Excellent in the Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method by the Business Environment Council. 

Today, Tam is an expert member of the bamboo construction task force at the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), a Beijing-based multilateral body that promotes environmentally sustainable development using bamboo and rattan. 

Hong Kong’s Martin Tam Tin-fong visits the “Bamboo Sea” in Anji county in the northwest of Zhejiang province. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The total world market value for bamboo and rattan products is estimated at around US$60 billion, according to INBAR, citing information from the United Nations Comtrade database and national statistic authorities.

Noting China is the world’s largest bamboo producer and exporter, Tam said the domestic use of bamboo can be traced back to ancient times during the Qin (221-206 BC) and Han (206 BC-AD 220) dynasties, when memorials to the throne were written on bamboo sticks. 

Today, bamboo plays an everyday role in people’s lives in areas including food, clothing and transportation.

In China, more than 400 species and varieties of bamboo exist out of more than 1,200 worldwide. The total area of bamboo resources in China is about 3.4 million hectares, representing 3 percent of the country’s total forest area and one-fourth of the world’s bamboo area, according to a report by INBAR and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

In 2018, the total value of China’s bamboo industry exceeded 200 billion yuan (US$28.5 billion), according to Xinhua.

As for the construction industry, which still mainly uses traditional materials like concrete and wood, increasing the use of bamboo will be conducive to fighting climate change, said Tam. 

A case in point is the vigorous growth of bamboo. Compared with 15 to 20 years needed for a tree to be exploited for timber, Tam said it only takes an average of three to five years for bamboo to be mature enough for lumbering. During rainy seasons, bamboo can grow up to 1.4 meters a day. 

Due to its fast growth rates, bamboo is also considered an effective carbon dioxide absorber. A report by INBAR in 2018 said that living bamboo stores a similar amount of carbon to tree plantations.

In addition, bamboo contributes to poverty alleviation, said Tam, emphasizing its use can help address 15 of the 17 sustainable development goals set by the UN to create peace and prosperity for people and the planet.

Roughly one-fourth of the world’s population relies on bamboo to make a living, especially those from poor areas, said Tam, noting bamboo is an important resource for building houses, making furniture and feeding livestock. 

An estimated 2.5 billion people around the world depend economically on bamboo, according to an FAO report. 

“Bamboo is more than a material — it can remind people of the fundamentals … it is a gift from nature,” said Tam. 

Bamboo is often regarded as a symbol of virtue in China, representing integrity, resistance, modesty and justice. 

Tam set out to convey this concept when he worked on a campus expansion project for Hang Seng Management College — now The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. 

Sitting on the school’s board of governors, he incorporated the use of bamboo across the campus in designs including the interiors and furniture. He aimed to show the young generation how bamboo in architecture can help mitigate climate change, while integrating the bamboo spirit into the environment. 

“Architecture is about the art and technique of design and building. For architects, they need to create good art pieces that can stand firmly between heaven and earth,” said Tam, who believes bamboo helps strengthen the vitality of buildings. 

Noting that a lack of awareness of bamboo’s capabilities still exists in the construction industry, Tam said the INBAR task force on bamboo construction, of which he is among the expert members, is drafting a universal standard for the industry to follow, in order to encourage the use of bamboo. 

“I hope China can take the lead (in forming such a standard),” said Tam.

kelly@chinadailyapac.com


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