The exhibit at Venice Biennale 2016 put up by Mansaram Architects and CGBMT was titled ‘Symphony of Bamboos’. The exhibition sought to explore and demonstrate the use of bamboo at 3 levels.

Bamboo, a metaphor-Bamboo is a natural, humble, elastic, adaptable, versatile, efficient, and holistic material. At Manasaram, we take our profession as a service to society- connected to people and nature at all times. We try to be adaptable, and versatile and look for simple efficient solutions just like the Bamboo. Secondly, traditional buildings with bamboo are symbiotic and part of our culture. Bamboo in that way symbolizes the need of the hour for the architecture profession to become Symbiotic and Social, rather than individualistic and elite. Bamboo is a metaphor for the way human existence itself should be on this earth-Humble!

Bamboo, a sustainable material- Recent research and development have shown bamboo to be an extremely resource-efficient and versatile material for the building sector, capable of solving major issues of sustainable development, especially in developing and underdeveloped countries. This can also resolve the problem of resource equity of natural resources. Bamboo serves the triple bottom line of Sustainable Development- Environmental security, Economic prudence, and Social justice all at the same time. It can provide cost-effective, safe, and aesthetical housing; livelihood security, eliminate poverty and crime; low carbon emissions, fast sequestering of carbon and liquid fuel and energy! That’s bamboo for us!

Bamboo, the engineering material- Bamboo can replace many highly processed engineering materials with high energy balance in the construction sector owing to its inherent properties. The physical structure and chemical composition of Bamboo have the properties of highly efficient materials. Its high fiber strength makes it the only replacement for steel especially in small buildings and the housing sector that form the largest chunk of construction. It can replace wood in almost all its applications. It forms excellent composites with a variety of materials suitable for many applications. 

Bamboo with mud and stone can create a new vocabulary of architecture. The exhibit showcases our journey after adding bamboo to our palette of materials in a wide range of buildings like housing, leisure, institutional, infrastructure, etc. The participatory research-based solutions in terms of materials and structure along with spatial, economical, ecological, and social requirements behind each project undertaken by CGBMT were explored in the course of the exhibit.