Bambu_Rush_12_MIN (2)
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Publisher and designer Franco
Maria Ricci and his wife Laura
have been passionate about
bamboo since the Eighties
and when they decided
to build a maze on
their property in Fontanellato
near Parma,
this hardy, versatile
and fast-growing plant
was the natural choice.
Two hundred thousand
plants from over
20 species on 8 acres
brought Labirinto della
Masone to life.
As the Riccis discovered
the many properties
of bamboo, they sought
to share them.
In 2016,
Under the Bamboo Tree was born,
an event that includes
conferences
with international experts
and expositions of products.
The knowledge about the
vast potentials of the species
is spreading thanks to
this initiative,
which has become a
yearly appointment.
In 2018 the international
design competition
Bamboo Rush, in collaboration
with AIB,
the Italian Bamboo Association,
and the academic institution
ISIA in Florence, has further
enriched the event.
Labirinto della Masone
is a world unto itself,
a world to discover.
Almost by mistake we started
with a little bush, a bamboo
bush of black bamboo,
which is a very elegant plant,
in our Milano garden.
From there, when Franco decided
to build
the largest maze
in the world,
we decided to use bamboo
because Franco started
when he was already
70 years old
and he thought that unless
he decided on a very
generous, very
quick-growing plant,
he wouldn't have a chance
of seeing
the maze completed.
What we want to achieve
is to grow,
to increase knowledge
about bamboo,
so with this appointment,
we are now at the third
year of Under the
Bamboo Tree
which is a line of an old
song, maybe
people don't know, but it's
a Judy Garland song.
We hope and we think
we are actually doing it,
letting people know
more about bamboo.
My experience with bamboo
in this place
started 3 years ago
when Lorenzo Bar
contacted me to try
and organize
with Laura Casalis Ricci
and Franco Maria Ricci
the first event to
tell people about
this place, it's
a wonderful place,
an amazing place,
this is the biggest
maze in the world
made of bamboo, and
no one knows this.
And this seemed to
be a perfect location
to start a European center
to spread knowledge
about bamboo.
So, we started to work
and now we are here
for the third year.
I think this place is
really amazing,
when I learned about this
place, I think 3 years ago,
I couldn't believe that
a place like this
existed in Italy.
For me it was
a surprise and when
I talked with friends
and colleagues about it
and showed them
pictures, they were
also completely
intrigued about the idea
of this place,
it is amazing.
I think the idea
to have this labyrinth
made in bamboo
was a really nice idea
and there is a lot of potential
for this place,
to work with bamboo
as well.
My experience with bamboo
started in 2013,
when I moved to China.
I was an invited professor
at the Hunan University,
where I found
a good friend of mine,
professor Shao Yen,
who is one of the first
bamboo builders,
so-called, in China
and he transmitted
his passion for this
material to me,
so as soon as I started
working with them,
I realized there was no framework
in which to develop
a solid bamboo theory.
And we started working
on that, so I brought in
my experience
that I developed
here in Europe
on several commissions,
and they brought in
their passion and
several ideas
on how to use bamboo for
architectural purposes.
My experience with bamboo
was just with little
things in bamboo,
just little objects,
but it was so elastic, so
fantastic, so light,
that I thought:
what material do I
have in my hands?
And at that moment,
I thought that it was
an incredible material.
Actually I already have
20 years of experience
working with
bamboo, I started
in 1996 or 1997, making
some furniture
for my student apartment,
and at that moment
I realized that there was
no technical information
about bamboo, and I
decided to do
my thesis about
structural resistance
of the Columbian
species of Guadua
and after that I just fell
in love with the material
and continued researching
and researching
during the last 20 years.
Currently we are working
on several experiments
about the structural use
of bamboo
as a net system, a diffused
system like this,
and also about fibers,
the way to use
bamboo as a fiber because
it is very resistant,
without materials.
With fibers of bamboo,
I think we can have
some very interesting
nets and also structural
nets that can also be used
for structural purposes.
Now I have set up
a team of researchers
with Luisa Molari, Lando
Mentrasti, Lorenzo Bar
and Mirko Maraldi.
We want to achieve
basic knowledge about
Italian bamboo as
a building material.
At the moment
we have carried out
mechanical tests.
Now we have identified
some basic properties
of Italian bamboo.
It's a three-storey house
without concrete,
made only in bamboo
with dry-mounted joints,
which means
put up without penetration
with bolts and
without using concrete.
And now we will build
in 6 months, we will build
an amazing
structure made of arches of
bamboo, again without concrete,
and hopefully in the next interview
we'll be the best, but the
house is definitely the most
significant construction
I have done until today.
I hope to show that bamboo
can be a material
like steel, concrete and timber.
My big dream is to
really help people
live a better life.
Happier and more healthy,
with a better quality of life.
This also means living
in a healthier house,
a sustainable house,
protecting the planet
and the environment,
and giving
a small contribution through
my professionalism
in this field.
This is a very "aesthetics" plant.
It is a very beautiful plant.
When you see a bamboo,
you recognize everywhere
that it is a bamboo,
and what's interesting is that
you have one piece of wood
and a lot of leaves.
So you have the flexibles
but at the same time
you have the leaves that
move, and these are
two ways to live in the world.
I think it's an interesting plant.
It's free, it grows freely,
it grows fast
and we can easily collect
it, and it is also
very workable, in the sense
that it can be engineered,
and the difference between
the use they made in the past
of bamboo as a
traditional material,
now we are trying to
engineer that.
I think resilience. Resilience
because bamboo
is a very resilient plant,
herb, and
it is ductile, it is very resistant,
the fibers are extremely
resilient, and I think
this is important
both in using it coupled
with other materials
or alone.
It can help poverty as well
and it is beautiful,
in the background,
you can see a beautiful
pavillon,
very simple, done by students
and built with their own hands
so you can do magnificent
things yourself.
You don't need factories,
you don't need
construction companies,
you can do it
by yourself or you can
do it with friends
or with a group
of people.
So, that's kind of my future
vision of the world.
The Bamboo Rush contest
was a great idea
that I had to promote
the bamboo plant,
and actually this year
we attracted the interest
of many architects and
engineers, who wanted to
invent, to try to use bamboo in
many different ways,
inventing objects and design,
and we had 3 winners,
and we actually discovered
the many possibilities
also with the creativity
of those architects
and designers, for
the use of bamboo.
What we would like to do
every year
is maybe change the theme
a little bit and to investigate
really what bamboo
can be used for,
how bamboo can be used,
for architecture
or engineering structures,
or also in design,
but maybe in different
ways, with different uses.