Splendor in The Fast-Frowing Grass
Environmentally correct, sustainable bamboo is emerging as a “green” alternative in flooring, tableware and even fashion design.
In the world of fashion in particular, Los Angeles is at bamboo’s leading edge. Artist-couturier Linda Loudermilk featured images of tree branches at her Paris runway show two years ago, signifying the launch of her precedent-setting luxury eco line, including an array of bamboo-fiber apparel.
“Bamboo is the new cotton,” she said in a phone interview from her studio on Sunset Boulevard. “It has all the properties that you physically want out of cotton, plus some. Bamboo is more antibacterial than cotton or wool, which are very absorbent and hold moisture in. Because bamboo wicks moisture away, it’s great for your circulation and skin.”
Then there are Loudermilk’s bamboo accessories, such as the handbag comprising sasawashi--made from the leaf fiber of a bamboo cousin--and a bamboo handle. For the spring season, she will introduce bamboo menswear and jeans lines.
There are about 1,200 species of bamboo, which is among the most widely used plant on earth. Some species of bamboo resist stretching better than steel, so in warm or tropical countries where they grow abundantly, this bamboo often substitutes for steel in the construction of houses, rafts, bridges and scaffolding.
Bamboo isn’t actually a wood at all, but a generally hollow grass that renews itself in seven years or less--and doesn’t require pesticides. This is one of the reasons bamboo is so attractive to environmentalists: Certain subtropical species can grow from a foot to more than three feet per day, and it’s not unusual for them to reach 100 feet. It’s like sustainability on steroids. Proper harvesting causes no more harm to the plant than mowing does to a lawn. And because it is a grass, bamboo is free of knots, which affect the stability of wood.
Bamboo is nature’s total-use product. Split and flattened culms (the distinctive jointed bamboo stems) are made into baskets, mats, hats and fish traps. The pulp can be made into paper. Branches yield water pipes, brooms, chopsticks and musical instruments; in 2000, Yamaha introduced a laminated-bamboo guitar. Bamboo splits perfectly straight and thin, making it perfect for fishing rods. Leftover pieces make firewood. Gourmets eat the tender young shoots. The leaves make animal fodder.
Thin planks can be made by splitting culms into strips and heating and gluing the layers. The process used to make engineered bamboo products is not unlike the ones employed to make particle board or plywood. The problem for some environmentalists is that some of the binders used in the process contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and formaldehydes. The World Health Organization has identified these formaldehydes as carcinogens. There are two types of formaldehydes used in the processes. Urea formaldehyde is the most toxic, both at point of production and for installers and consumers. Phenol formaldehyde, while equally toxic at point of production, poses a negligible risk to consumers.
Finding out what binders were used and whether they contain VOCs or formaldehydes is best done through the manufacturer. You can also chat up knowledgeable salespeople at such stores as Livingreen in Culver City.
On the other hand, choosing bamboo--the right bamboo--is still more green than going with an engineered wood product that has at least an equal toxicity and is not as readily renewable. “Using bamboo certainly protects forests since composition board is an unhealthy choice both for consumers and the forests,” says Ted Bardacke, a senior program associate with the environmental organization Global Green USA. “It’s a healthy choice as long as consumers educate themselves to buying the right item.”
Product testing has revealed that laminated bamboo resists dents better than red oak, the most typical wood flooring, and as well as hard maple, the toughest domestic hardwood flooring used in the United States. Or better, depending on the type of laminated bamboo.
Bamboo retails for about $6 to $10 a square foot and comes in a natural state resembling freshly milled maple, or is carbonized in a heat treatment that changes its color to caramel. It is available in a horizontal lamination, with the wider side of the strips facing upward, presenting a subtle grain that shows the plant’s nodes, or knee-like joints. Bamboo also comes vertically laminated, with the narrower sides upward, assembled butcher-block style. This form is actually harder than oak and maple and presents a snake-like stripe reminiscent of ribbon mahogany.
John Samczyk, a cabinet maker at Santa Barbara’s Design Studio, has transformed a studio office into a showroom for cabinetry, furniture and flooring made of horizontally laminated bamboo. “We get quite a bit of interest from designers because of the bamboo’s three-dimensional look. It almost looks like you can reach in and feel the knuckles.”
Recent innovations include a bamboo composite made of shredded bamboo. It’s denser than laminated bamboo and twice as hard as oak, but you see long wiggly lines instead of those charming nodes. Then there is End Grain, exclusive to Silkroad Bamboo Flooring, Canada’s oldest supplier of bamboo building materials, with the exotic look of mosaic because it shows the ends and tips of individual bamboo strands on the surface of the planks.
To dine in eco style, France’s Ekobo offers a slick, contemporary line of housewares that includes cups, serving trays and salad bowls, available at Target stores and through Illicodesign.com and Vivre.com. Target also offers the Global Home bamboo Roman shade with tan-toned woven bamboo and brown stitching. Ekobo gets an extra green stamp because of its effort to create jobs for artisans making these wares in their own villages.
INSTALLING A BAMBOO FLOOR
Installer beware: Bamboo, like a lot of woods, needs room to breathe. Otherwise, like any other wood-floor installation, may end up with a surface that buckles badly when the weather changes.
* Bamboo right off the boat, like other tropical woods, has a 20% moisture content. Make sure the supplier has dried the planks to 10% humidity or the floor may shrink and pull apart.
* Ask the supplier to drop off the wood a couple of weeks before the flooring contractor arrives to let the bamboo adjust to your house’s microclimate.
* Since bamboo is an organic product, color variations may occur. To ensure that your floor doesn’t look like a giant patchwork quilt, randomly mix up the planks from different boxes before laying them.
* Don’t install the planks flush to the wall. Leave a half-inch of space for the material to expand on hot, humid days. You will need to conceal the gap with quarter-round or other moulding. So if your heart is set on a minimalist Modernist decor, forget about bamboo flooring.
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Resource guide
COVER: Plyboo Parquet bamboo floor, at Smith & Fong Co., South San Francisco, (866) 835-9859, www.plyboo.com. Sande “Wave” eco-friendly plywood coffee table, at David Brunicardi, Oakland, (510) 649-8895, www.dbfurniture.com. Magazine bowl, at the Gardener, San Francisco, (415) 981-8181, www.thegardener.com. Green bamboo branch painting, at Zinc Details, San Francisco, (415) 776-2100, www.zincdetails.com. Journal by Lauren Lamotte, at Rock Paper Scissors Collective, Oakland, (510) 238-9171, www.rpscollective.com. Cork lamp, at FINDecor, San Francisco, (415) 437-6789, www.findecor.com. Bamboo cup set, at Dandelion, San Francisco, (415) 436-9500, www.tampopo.com. Glass vase, at Therapy, San Francisco, (415) 621-5902. PAGES 16-17 and 59: Silkroad Bamboo Flooring, Toronto, (866) 882-6482, www.silkroadflooring.com. Linda Loudermilk, Los Angeles, (323) 874-7088, www.luxuryeco.com. Livingreen, Culver City, (310) 838-8442, www.livingreen.com. Design Studio, Santa Barbara, (805) 563-2003, www.sbdesignstudio.com. PAGES 18-20: David Hertz Architects, Santa Monica, (310) 829-9932. Warren Wagner, W3 Architects, Venice, (310) 396-5885. Behnisch Architects, Venice, (310) 399-9003. PAGES 24-30: John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects, Los Angeles, (213) 253-4740. Landscape architect Michael Schneider, Orange Street Studio, Los Angeles, (323) 874-3378. Inline sofa with Koto White fabric, $5,757, and Ark chair with La Strada Silver fabric, $2,595, to the trade at Cisco Brothers, L.A. Design Center, Los Angeles, (866) 247-2652. Linea dining table in oak with ashy taupe stain, $3,030; Linea armchair, $1,398, and Linea side chair, $1,212, all at CottonWood on Arroyo, Pasadena, (626) 584-1273. PAGES 34-38: Pugh+Scarpa, Santa Monica, (310) 828-0226. PAGES 40-42: Design21, Marina del Rey, (310) 574-8805.
