Not only wood! Helping to record plant based architecture around the world

The recording of endangered wooden architecture that is at risk of conflict, climatic erosion or neglect is the focus of the Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme. The grant-giving programme supports not only the recording of wooden architecture but, if a case is made, also the documentation of structures constructed using other plants, such as palm, bamboo, reed, or grass.

The use of such monocotyledons (flowering plants that have a single stem), often in combination with wood, is widespread throughout the world. Palm trees, for instance, are widely used in traditional construction in the region between latitudes 40°N and 40°S. The trunks of palms with long stems such as the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera), the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera), and the doum palm (Hyphaene thebaica) have been used for structural purposes, supporting floors, roofs, and walls in countries as wide apart as Malaysia, Oman, Niger, and Yucatan. The leaves of those palms, and of other short stem varieties such as Johannesteijsmannia altifrons (Teysmannia altifrons), have commonly been used to clad roofs and walls too.

House made with woven bamboo matting in Myanmar
Flicker user Piktouruk CC BY 2.0

Bamboo is another monocotyledon that is widely used in architectural construction, with the best cultivars growing to heights of between 12 and 15 meters, which can be harvested annually. There are more than 1,600 species of bamboo, many of which grow in the wild, though some are cultivated. Because of their tensile strength, equivalent to low-carbon steel, and straightness, several species have been valuable building materials and have often been used as floor joists, wall frames, columns, and roof structures. In Kerala, buildings are built on pillars of treated bamboo, rising above floodwaters, while in Indonesia bamboo is used for cladding roofs. Bamboo split and flattened, is also used to weave floors and walls; the domed homes of the Dorze people in Ethiopia, which may be 8 meters high, are made entirely out of bamboo and are perhaps the most remarkable example of this.

 

Reeds and grasses have been widely used too, mainly to thatch roofs and walls. To this day, thatching remains one of the most widespread construction uses of grasses, reeds, and indeed palms, throughout the world. Some reed-thatched roofs in Europe can last up to 60 years before needing replacement; in tropical areas, a thatched roof may need to be replaced every three years. In some instances, reed has also been used for structural purposes. The houses of the Marshland people in Iraq, for example, and those of the Urus people who live on artificial islands on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru, have structural frameworks made out of bundles of reed. The frames are then covered with woven reed matting.

Example of a marshland reed house in Iraq
Flickr user davidstanleytravel CC BY 2.0

Like many wooden buildings, many building traditions using plant materials are at risk. The Marshland reed houses in Iraq have largely disappeared as a result of drainage projects and the resultant forced displacement of the local communities. Although it is a tourist attraction, the Dorze bamboo houses tradition is in decline, as the people prefer modern houses made of cement blocks and tin. Fire, damp, decay, and insect attack are significant shortcoming of palms, bamboo, reeds, and grasses, and make communities turn to alternative resources. Persistent stigmas around the materials, symbolizing backwardness and poverty, play a part in many parts of the world. Paradoxically, in other parts of the world, thatched roofs have become too expensive for ordinary people. As a result, local knowledge around how to utilize these materials is disappearing, despite renewed interest in the use of bamboo in particular.

The next EWAP grant round will be September 2022. Check out our grants page to find our more.