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Reader Response Draft 1

In the article “Building with Bamboo”, Ghavami and García (2017) state that bamboo provides various benefits when used in the construction industry. Bamboo is environmentally friendly as it grows in abundance. The article states that the structural strength of bamboo is comparable to steel; laminated bamboo has similar properties to timber and glue-laminated timber. The article further mentions about corrugated bamboo being effective when used in concrete. However, the article also states that bamboo poses challenges when used in construction as there are variables that are inherent; bamboo has geometrical irregularities and “high-water absorption and susceptibility to fungal and insect attack." The writers hope that multinational enterprises will emphasize in reducing global warming by investing in developing more economical and environmentally friendly materials such as bamboo. While the usage of bamboo in construction is being encouraged, there are still further studies and development required to understand the behavior of bamboo.
In the article, Ghavami and Garcia have mentioned a broad range of various benefits on using bamboo for construction industry but there are other authors who give a more concise and clear elaboration on using bamboo for construction. An author named Stéphane Schröder has stated the design shape and grading of the difficulty of using bamboo for constriction. He stated, “Big structures can proportionally turn out to be cheaper than smaller structures.” This is because smaller structure requires a lot of labor, craftsmen, materials and time, resulting in a bigger investment for a structure to cover a small floor area as compared to a bigger structure to cover a big floor area. He further elaborated this point with a supporting example. The example is “if she decided to make a simple single-bamboo column it would’ve had just been 6 poles instead of 36 meaning that could’ve also covered a bigger area for a smaller cost.” Therefore, with this example, it is proven that the size of the bamboo affects the cost of building construction.
In addition, another author named J.Atanda has also mentioned other benefits that Ghavami and Garcia did not mention in their article. J. Atanda mentions that bamboo can be stronger than steel and concrete in building construction industry. He states, “bamboo can serve as a light structural component of a building, which can be restricted in height, serves to bring down the seismic effect connected with dead load structures during seismic occasions.” He further elaborated this point with an example to support his point. The example is “In 1992, Cost Rica was hit by an earthquake which registered 7.5 in magnitude on the Ritcher scale. The only buildings which survived were homes built of bamboo construction.” Thus, with this example, we can prove that bamboo is a better material for construction than steel or concrete.
Lastly, Ghavami and Garcia did not talk about why bamboo is an eco-friendly construction material. Thus, another author Dirk Hebel mentions about why bamboo is an eco-friendly construction material. He states, “Bamboo has its unrivaled capacity to capture carbon and could, therefore, play an important role in reducing carbon emissions worldwide” This shows that bamboo plays a crucial role in the construction industry. As bamboo helps to prevent global warming from happening. Therefore, with such a prove, we can determine that bamboo is an eco-friendly construction material.
In conclusion, Ghavami and Garcia have effectively mentioned on the various benefits and weakness on building with bamboo. However, I feel that there are still certain benefits that they did not state like education of bamboo, size of bamboo and strengthens of bamboo. Overall, they have stated a balance of benefits and weakness on building with bamboo.



References:
https://www.guaduabamboo.com/construction/the-reality-about-building-with-bamboo
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214509515300048


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