Within a century most commonly used building materials will be depleted. Yet there is a rapidly renewable, carbon negative – yet often overlooked – solution: giant bamboo. Because of its ability to restore degraded land, reforesting with bamboo could mitigate climate change and provide an enormous source of raw material. Furthermore, industrially processed bamboo can be used in a multitude of modern applications. Not only in the building industry, but also in interior design and the textile, paper and energy industry.

Pablo van der Lugt, PhD MSc Eng, is a passionate advocate of renewable natural materials such as bamboo. He is the author of 5 books on sustainable building materials, including Booming Bamboo (2017), which details the latest developments in design and architecture using bamboo. Building Engineer dr. ir. Pablo van der Lugt finished his PhD Research about the environmental impact of industrial bamboo materials at Delft University of Technology in 2008. After his PhD, van der Lugt conducted various ambassador roles in the green building industry and has remained connected as guest lecturer bio-based materials to Delft University of Technology.
In the vision of van der Lugt in the essential transition towards a more circular economy there are tremendous opportunities for smart biobased materials made from fast-growing resources such as bamboo, to substitute carbon intensive, high performance materials such as tropical hardwood, steel, PVC and concrete. Van der Lugt has published extensively in both popular magazines as scientific journals and regularly provides (keynote) presentations on this topic to stakeholders and policy makers in the building industry. In October 2017 his book “Booming Bamboo” on contemporary bamboo design & architecture will be launched. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx