Strong as steel and environmentally sound, bamboo is branching out
Tell someone you're planning to decorate with bamboo and they may wonder if you are taking your design cues from Ricardo Montalban and ''Fantasy Island," with its Tiki bars and oversized chairs.
That image is so old that even bamboo's newer image as a sturdy alternative for hardwood flooring is showing some age, too. Flooring is still the most likely use for bamboo in the home, but designers today are using this strong, versatile grass all over the house, for everything from kitchen cabinets to countertops, cutting boards to serving bowls, shower curtains to dining room chairs.
The appeal of bamboo is often its clean, airy look and perhaps its association with warmer climes, but there's more to it than that. It has greater tensile strength than steel; it's a sustainable, environmentally friendly material (it grows fast enough to be harvested within three to five years without depleting natural resources, and it regenerates quickly); and it can cost less and last longer than red oak, the wood most commonly used for flooring.
What's not to like?
One company bringing fresh interpretations to bamboo is called, suitably enough, bambu. The two-year-old New York firm makes bamboo bowls, cutlery and flatware, and biodegradable plates. Fortune magazine named bambu's Veneerware plates among the 25 bestproducts of 2004. This year the company is introducing several new products, including a new cutting board called ''the plank," a super-sized stirring spoon called ''the big stir," and appetizer pieces called sporks.
Founder and designer Rachel Speth and partner Jeff Delkin answered questions about bambu via e-mail from Shanghai, where they live.
''When we created bambu, we set out to inform and excite people about renewable materials. That was our goal. But we also realized that to do that effectively, we had to create products that offered good design and aesthetic appeal at a good value," writes Speth. ''Customers have to like what it looks like, enjoy what it feels like. Then, when they learn of all the wonderful environmental benefits of bamboo, it enhances the buying experience."
Bamboo kitchenware has come a long way from chopsticks and steamers. Totally Bamboo, a North Hollywood company owned by Tom Sullivan and Joanne Chen, makes a wide range of laminated bamboo cutting boards, serving bowls, and utensils. Sullivan says he's also done prototypes for bamboo dashboards and gearshift knobs in cars as well as shower curtains. Recently, he made a bamboo guitar for a client. Later this year the company intends to launch a line of bamboo countertops and is looking into making bamboo building materials.
''We're trying to break new ground with everything we do," Sullivan says.
Bamboo furniture designers are also breaking new ground with sleek and modern pieces that are a far cry from the kitschy look of the '60s.
Gerard Minakawa is the founder of Ukao, which means ''way of life" in Swahili. The line includes tables, seating, and custom-designed pieces that are available at RISD Works in Providence. Minakawa, a Rhode Island School of Design alumnus, spoke by phone from Bolivia, where he was working with Andean textile weavers and helping a nongovernmental organization devoted to bamboo products get on its feet.
''In 2000, I visited my sister in Japan for three weeks, and discovered how people could live with bamboo. I realize now how important this is, because rather than simply being a chic or trendy object, it has been a cultural icon in Japan since time immemorial," Minakawa says. ''After thousands of years, [the Japanese] and other cultures continue to technologically refine and offer exciting artistic interpretations to the material."
Despite the increasingly wide range of uses for bamboo, flooring remains one of the most popular.
Trevor Gilmore, a partner in Bamboo Mountain, based in Novato, Calif., says his company uses formaldehyde-free glue and Moso bamboo from China that's harvested every five to six years and can grow as tall as 100 feet. Bamboo Mountain produces flooring in a light-colored natural shade and a darker brown carbonized variety, both of which can be stained and finished.
The one caution Gilmore offers consumers is to do some homework to be sure you're getting a quality product with a long-term warranty.
''We suggest everyone get one sample and take a look at the side view. There shouldn't be any gaps," he says. ''If there are, that means the manufacturing and the glue are not up to par and there could be problems down the road with warping and buckling."
While several companies have taken a recent interest in bamboo, San Francisco's Smith and Fong has been selling bamboo home products for almost 20 years. Like Bamboo Mountain, Smith and Fong's East Coast clientele is steadily growing, especially among those drawn to bamboo's environmental benefits, says company cofounder Daniel Smith.
''I went searching specifically for formaldehyde-free materials," says Howard Goldkrand, a Smith and Fong customer and multimedia artist who divides his time between New York and Boston. ''The flooring has been in place less than two months. It's great looking, it does all the things they say it does. But more important, I'm happy with the environmental choices I'm making."
Smith started out selling bamboo tea boxes from the back of his 1972 orange
''I think bamboo probably appeals to a whole variety of people," says Smith. ''People just looking for something new and different, people looking for something green and alternative who want to think they're contributing to a better world, people who relate to Asian design."
