A Bamboo House

Since 2012, I have been working and learning how to build with the very beautiful and noble material Bamboo, training under different masters and craftsmen, learning all around the world in Brazil, the United States, Panama and Portugal.

In 2017, I managed to fulfil a life-long dream of mine to build a typical ‘Bahay Kubo’ (windy house) in the Philippines with my family. Designed and funded by myself, I worked on this project for six weeks with my loved ones around me, building a house for my grandma and using bamboo from my family’s land. The following is the greatest project I have achieved to date and I am proud and grateful to have been given the opportunity to learn traditional techniques of the Philippines and to share some skills I have picked up around the world to my relatives and my village.

  • Role Architect, builder and client
  • Date November 2017 – December 2017

Bamboo Flower Detail on side of the house

Learning with my Lolo, Amoricio Caacbay the Bamboo Master

Half way progress of project

Lining the inside seats with bamboo splits

Learning to scrape the bamboo clean with a machete

Using bamboo from our land in the province, the ‘Kubo’ is an outdoor rest house to spend hot days in the shade

We used traditional Nipa for the roof which was designed with a steep pitch on both sides, as well as the back

Bamboo splits clad the Kubo, each one nailed with small pins

Triangular panel fits in the top space of the roof and adorned with a bamboo lantern

We used four wooden posts which are over 60 years old. They had been previously used for two other Kubos and were cleaned and treated for the new project

Inside of the roof, also decorated with another bamboo latern (about 300 holes!)