CRI听力:Bamboo, a Sustainable Material for Buildings

Better city, better life. With the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, a city needs to develop in a sustainable way to ensure a better life. At the ongoing Shanghai World Expo, many pavilions are built in an environmentally friendly way and some are made out of bamboo. Chen Zhe has more.

 According to the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, or INBAR, 9 pavilions and 3 Expo utilities at the Shanghai World Expo are made of bamboo.

Coosje Hoogendoorn, Director General of INBAR, says bamboo is more environmentally friendly than other wood materials.

"Bamboo grows fast. It grows from zero to 30 meters in 45 days in the tropics without any problems. We can use it almost like wood very quickly. The other thing is, that if you have a tree, and you cut the tree, then the tree dies. You have to plant new trees. When you have bamboo and you cut the bamboo stand, because bamboo is basically a big grass, it will regrow. So you don't destroy the root system."

Coosje says in modern buildings, you can use bamboo where you use wood. An advantage of bamboo used in building lies in its flexibility.

"In earthquake, the cement house, cannot move, 'Pang', claps. But houses made out of bamboo tend to be much better in an earthquake because they have that natural flexibility. The earth is moving and then the houses move with it as well."

However, many people worry about the quality of bamboo. Lin Hai, from Dasso Industrial Group of China, says that processed bamboo can last 20 years or even longer.

"We have seen bamboo preserved well for over 90 years. After the drying and preserving process, we definitely can use it to build residential houses. Bamboo now used in interior decoration can last 20 years without deterioration. But if treated well, the lifespan of bamboo can be as long as 100 years."

Bamboo has already become part of modern buildings. Madrid airport in Spain sets a good example of how bamboo can be used. Coosje Hoogendoorn, Director General of INBAR, also says they are building houses with bamboo for middle class people in Beijing.

For CRI, I'm Chen Zhe.