Building with bamboo - 1rst. course

The first course, Building with Bamboo, was held on the center land in November 2010.  One of the foremost experts on bamboo construction in all of Mexico, Ricardo Leyva, Executive Director of Ojtat (www.ojtat.org), gave the course. 

Tierralegre granted two scholarships, one to a La Manzanilla ejido member and another to a La Manzanilla secondary school student.  As well, both the Southern and Northern Coastal Coordinators of Secretary of Rural Development participated in the course.

Construction of the center´s main structure commenced during the course, and students helped in the planting of the first hectare of several cultivars of structural and semi-structural clumping bamboo which will serve as future primary building materials for the project.

Building with bamboo course

Location: Center for Applied Ecology, Boca de Iguanas, La Huerta, Jalisco, Mexico, Km. 16, Highway 200, Melaque - Puerto Vallarta

Course Duration:  5 days

Course Dates: October 27 - 31, 2011

Course Objectives:  This course covers farming, processing, and construction techniques utilized with bamboo.  Participants will learn to design, plan, and build with bamboo.  The course balances theory and practice, incorporating the building an actual bamboo structure.

Course instructor is architect Ricardo Leyva, Director of Ojtat and one of the bamboo expert in Mexico.  

The course is aimed at the community, students, builders, professionals and individuals interested in learning to build with bamboo.

Theme:

Introduction to the world of Bamboo:

• Physical and biological characteristics of bamboo

• Planting and harvesting bamboo
• Bamboo treatment
• Tools and equipment needed to work with Bamboo
• Joining bamboo
• Bamboo and structure

• o    Bamboo as a structural system
• o    Designing a structure
• o    Bamboo placement
• o    The structure

• Bamboo walls

Practice:

• Designing, planning, assembly and construction of a bamboo structure.
• Field tests
• Knots (delivery side and front) and assemblies
• Cutting bamboo
• Planting, harvesting and processing of bamboo

Tours: Visit to a polyculture hectare of bamboo, viewing features of three different species of bamboo: Guadua angustifolia, Guadua aculiata, Dendrocalamus oldhamii, their treatment and possible uses.  

There will also be one ecotour provided as part of the course in order for participants to learn more about the surrounding tropical dry forest ecosystem.

Methodology: All days provide practice and/or theory sessions, supported by media.

Instructor: Architect Ricardo Leyva Cervantes

Ricardo holds a Masters in "Regional Studies, Environment and Development" from the UIA, Puebla, Puebla. He has taught the following courses: Construction of Bamboo Structures in Cali, Colombia; Natural Building at the Proyecto San Isidro, Tlaxco, Tlaxcala; Sustainable Architecture at the Politecnico di Torino, Italy; Alternative Energy: Appropriate Technology at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain, among others.  He has designed and built a vast number of strtuctures and been involved in many projects including: sustainable housing, alternative tourism, ecotourism, centers of environmental education and training, and an eco-hotel, all of them utilizing bamboo in various forms. Also, during his employment in the cooperative Tosepan in Cuetzalan, Puebla, he designed and built systems to capture rainwater and prototype stoves in rural communities. He is professor of the class of Sustainable Architecture and Urban Landscape at the UIA, Puebla, Puebla.  He taught bamboo construction courses for, and assisted in the coordination of, the second Mexican Bamboo Congress in March 2008.

What to bring:

• Flashlight
• Clothing for the field and a hat or cap (note: it can get quite hot during the day)
• Work gloves
• Sunscreen
• Insect repellent 
• Water bottle
• Camping gear (tent, lightweight sleeping bag, sleeping pad)