Engineered bamboo is a set of composite products produced from

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

. It is designed to be a replacement for wood or

engineered wood Engineered wood, also called mass timber, composite wood, man-made wood, or manufactured board, includes a range of derivative wood products which are manufactured by binding or fixing the strands, particles, fibres, or veneers or boards of woo ...

, but is used only when high load bearing strength is not required because building standards for this type of use have not been agreed by regulatory bodies. Engineered bamboo comes in several different forms, including bamboo scrimber and laminated bamboo, which has three times the structural capacity as normal timber and is defined and regulated by the

ASTM International ASTM International, formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials, is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, ...

Standards. Engineered bamboo has been used as paneling, vehicle beds, concrete formworks, lightweight building construction and even for shelters after the

2004 tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Su ...

. In comparison to the woods that have been traditionally used, a number of benefits and drawbacks have been identified. Lower cost, especially when replacing wood that would otherwise have been imported, is a key advantage. Further benefits include greater hardness and shape retention, especially in high temperatures. However, bamboo is not as resilient as most woods and will decay more rapidly than other woods if not treated with preservatives. New building methods have had to be developed for engineered bamboo as its properties are sufficiently different, and make normal wood-working methods used with (non-engineered) bamboo unsuitable. In order to overcome the typical loss of strength bamboo incurs when bending takes place post-harvest, an alternative method to overcome this has been developed. Pre-harvest bending of the bamboo stems in zig-zags, allows the bamboo to later form a

Warren truss Warren Errol Truss, (born 8 October 1948) is a former Australian politician who served as the 16th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development in the Abbott Government and the Turnbull Governm ...

. Alexander Vittouris has proposed a much simpler 2D S-bend shape, which — after harvesting, and in sufficient quantities — could be assembled into a variety of 3D shapes. The

arboriculture Arboriculture () is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants. The science of arboriculture studies how these plants grow and respond to cultural practices and to their environme ...

technique used to make both shapes is similar to

tree shaping Tree shaping (also known by several other alternative names) uses living trees and other woody plants as the medium to create structures and art. There are a few different methods used by the various artists to shape their trees, which share a ...

, and result in parts similar to woodworking knees. Stephen Cauchi
"Bamboozled? Give it a grow"
2011.

References

Bamboo Engineered wood {{manufacturing-stub