JAUE2024-014: Design and Environmental Sustainability of Affordable Locally Constructed Modular Bamboo House

Abstract

This Research and design aim to enhance the quality of life in rural communities in Myanmar by proposing an affordable and durable Modular Bamboo House Design. Rural Regions, in Myanmar, one of the Southeast Asia Countries have been facing home deficiency. Most households in rural areas use bamboo as a construction material in Myanmar because bamboo is the cheapest building material and plenty grow in Myanmar. Bamboo material has not only high mechanical properties and strength but also indeed boasts impressive environmental performance. Hence, renewable bamboo was considered the potential building material for low-cost housing. In this research, there are two parts; design proposal and development. At the design stage, the potential of low-cost, easy-to-build bamboo joinery design jointed with bamboo nails is proposed to create the module house design concept. At the development stage, according to the scope of this research, the feasibility of the proposed bamboo joint strength, affordability, and ease of building was examined by conducting a pilot study on the structural experiment and constructing a structure frame mockup experiment with volunteers of unskilled labor. All experiments were conducted with Moso Chiku bamboo in Japan. In the end, Selected Local Myanmar species are introduced by comparing the mechanical properties of Moso Bamboo Performance. The estimated cost was calculated based on those limitations to evaluate the affordability. As the result of this research, all of these pilot study experiments’ results are analyzed to be reliable for future development of full-scale studies on joint design and implementing the whole structure frame design in future studies. Enhancing the affordability and durability of a proposed modular bamboo joint design will maximize the environmental performance benefits and significantly improve the quality of life in rural communities.