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Bamboo House: College Admission Essay Sample

• University: Mercer University

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Published: Jul 18, 2018

Words: 612 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Picture your dream getaway: White sandy beaches, crystal blue water, palm trees swaying in the breeze, waiters acting on your every command to bring you the finest foods and drinks available. If you ask any travel agent to send you to this paradise, they will undoubtedly suggest the U.S. Virgin Islands. Now picture your worst nightmare: Destitution seen in no other country, food shortages, no clean drinking water, minimal shelter made out of leftover tin that bakes in the day and freezes at night.

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Surprisingly, if you turn around 180 degrees in your beach chair back in the U.S. Virgin Islands, you would see just that. A mere mile or two away from the lavish lifestyle of the international tourist is a world of misery and pain. A personal account by Bishop Herbert Bevard of the Virgin Islands is chilling, and will forever drive me to never allow myself to fall into an attitude of entitlement. He was handing out food to the children and after he ran out, a boy ran up and asked for food. The Bishop, not knowing what to do, told the boy that he was all out and that the boy should ask his mother for food. The boy then said, “I don’t get to eat today; it’s my sisters turn.” Personally, I’ve never been unable to access food a day in my life, and I cannot fully imagine what this boy is going through, but the thought of anyone having to give up food every other day for his sister breaks my heart.

As an engineer who looks to solve problems and not just identify them, I will always seek to determine the root cause of any dilemma I come across. If you feed a man a fish, he will be fed for a day...if you teach a man to fish, he will be fed for a lifetime. This is my philosophy while planning how to solve the problem of food shortages in the Virgin Islands. Instead of requisitioning aid to supply the islanders, I plan to teach the islanders how to grow food in the naturally fertile volcanic soil. Highly caloric and highly nutritious plants thrive in the Virgin Islands, such as sweet potato, rice, beans, durians, chili peppers, and mangoes. Teaching and creating an environment where the islanders could grow their own food is my ultimate mission for Mercer on a Mission trip.

In order to help adequately house the people of the Virgin Islands, I plan to use another unique sustainable resource of the Virgin Islands: bamboo. Bamboo grows everywhere on the islands and is thick and structurally sound. To address the problem of poor or no housing, I would recruit a group of students to travel to the Virgin Islands and design a plan to provide houses made out of bound bamboo. It would be the students' task to find a way to shrink wrap bamboo to provide a base for the walls and the ceiling. We would design the prototype in the lab before going, but we would design the buildings on site once we find a good spot to assemble them.

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The Stamps Scholarship would help me to improve the health and living conditions of a significant number of poor people in a country where no one sees them. I will bring together a committed team of Mercer students from different majors who are looking to change the most vulnerable communities. The places that people don’t look are often the places that need the most attention. I am confident that the Stamps Scholarship will help me to change the world through Mercer on a Mission.

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• Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia

• Volume 5, Numbers 1 & 2, October 2021
• NUS Press Pte Ltd

• View Citation

Additional Information

• Prism of Difference: Bamboo, Bayanihan and the Secret Society of "ñtcllg Kztzzstzzszllg Kztñpxllzll"
• Will Davis (bio)

The nipa and bamboo house—bahay kubo—is often pointed to as an emblem of Filipino national culture, rustic ingenuity and a traditional, mobile architectural type, captured prominently in the mid-century conservative realist paintings of Fernando Amorsolo. Its humble origin story as a trope of pastoral nationalism, however, obscures its relationship to anticolonial resistance and insurrection toward the close of the 19th century. Using Amorsolo's 1959 painting Bayanihan as a starting point, this text looks at the way in which the nipa and bamboo house was framed by another Filipino national hero, José Rizal, and the effect of his writings on the Katipunan secret society in the years leading up to the Philippine Revolution of 1896.

The signature broad, rough-hewn brush strokes of Fernando Amorsolo depict a nipa and bamboo house being held aloft in its totality by some 30 villagers, against the electric shades of a tropical evening sky ( Figure 1 ). To the right of the frame, a man gestures to the crowd, coaxing them forward. Backlit against the sky, the wide brim of his domed salukot identifies him as a farmer. Bayanihan (1959), the process of a village moving a house in unison, is both the title and subject matter of Amorsolo's painting, and is a typical [End Page 119]

Bayanihan Fernando Amorsolo, Oil on Canvas, 59.8 × 85.2cm, 1959. From the Collection of the University of Santo Tomas Museum, Manila Philippines.

example of the "conservative realist" strain of painting that dominated the Philippine art scene in the period directly following independence from the United States in 1946. 1 From the outside, it would seem that the image is a celebration of pastoral, nationalist pride, with the nipa dwelling—an architecture of community and mobility—as its iconographic centrepiece. Yet the building in question was more mobile and flexible than either nationalism or the painterly traditions that ruminated on it. Indeed, the dwelling has found itself in a swirling sea of contention for over a century, with its iconic triangular silhouette serving as a container for an anti-colonial identity and a resistance movement. Using Amorsolo's Bayanihan as a starting point, this text traces a rough genealogy of the nipa hut through events, writings and observations of the late 19th century that shaped its interpretation, with the Philippine revolution of 1896 as apex. Nipa and bamboo houses were among the meeting places of the Katipunan, a secret society whose leadership came from a mixture of laymen and urban elites, the Ilustrados , who described the dwelling in reverential tones that stirred the sentiments of the anti-colonial insurgency.

Bayanihan was painted the year Amorsolo won the UNESCO National Commission Gold Medal and it was purchased by then-President Diosdado [End Page 120] Macapagal. The international reception of Amorsolo, whose prolific output during his lifetime is estimated at least 10,000 pieces was welded to his status as a poster boy of American-Philippine friendship. However, he might also be identified as a pacifist-survivalist: Amorsolo painted portraits of American generals in the 1930s, then portraits of occupying Japanese soldiers during the Second World War to make a living; his allegiances, like his subjects, were changeable. Amorsolo became famous for his landscape paintings. Despite his detractors (his paintings are not difficult to understand, wrote a critic in 1948, because "there is nothing to understand"), the Filipino landscapes of Amorsolo are hardly empty or apolitical. 2 For architectural historians, landscape paintings are interesting because they reveal a context within which buildings and symbols can be placed. Like their subject matter, the politics of landscapes lie in their innocent ubiquity. The various strands of conservative-, social- and socialist-realism painterly traditions that flourished in the nonaligned world during the 1950s often communicated a romantic pastoral politics in which rural architecture, revealing degrees of craftman-ship and rustic tradition, played a key role. Philippine conservative realism was no different. Casting an eye across thousands of Amorsolo greens, yellows, pastel skies, straw hats and paddy fields, one notices the repeated appearance of the eponymous nipa and bamboo bahay kubo hovering in the background or offered as a shimmering centrepiece.

It would be too straightforward to pin a discussion of Amorsolo's bahay kubo on the increasing mechanization of agriculture, the mood of post-colonial nationalism, or the soothing of politicians who, in the 1950s, were relying on US assistance to quash a rural insurgency in the Central Plain of Luzon. 3 Convincing as this framework may be, it does not adequately explain how embedded the building already was in the landscape, there for Amorsolo and many others' taking. 4 To understand why this architecture is important to pastoral idealism in an imagined national landscape, we must cycle back more than 60 years to 1887, when it existed outside of the American colonial timeframe and was apposite to the Spanish as part of an anticolonial uprising.

Toward the close of the 19th century, Filipinos had become increasingly agitated with their Spanish colonial administrators. News of the various revolutions that rocked Europe in 1848 reached the Philippines through the ilustrados , middle- and upper-class mestizo elite Filipinos, who spent time in Spain studying or conducting business. The splintering of monarchies in Western Europe, with the sole exception of Spain, meant that the gleam of the Enlightenment-era Spanish Empire appeared increasingly dulled beside its reforming European neighbours. 5 France had passed universal suffrage, [End Page 121] Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm had unified Germany, and Italy had declared itself a republic in 1849. For the rest of the world, all of this showed that actions of the citizenry could render results, and the main offshoot was the collapse of traditional monarchies, the key exceptions being the Spanish and the Habsburgs. It could be done, and the reverberations of the Haitian Revolution half a century earlier could still be felt in the islands and archipelagos dominated by extractive colonial regimes. One such ilustrado who travelled in Europe during the decades following these ruptures was José Rizal. A doctor from a middle-class Laguna family, Rizal studied and worked in Madrid, Brussels and Berlin, writing for leftist publications like La Solidaridad whose editorial board consisted of a network of Filipinos studying in European universities. 6 On his return to the Philippines in 1892, Rizal, a polymath who is reputed to have spoken over 22 languages, founded La Liga Filipina , an organization for social reform conceived through his connections among the islands of the archipelago and in Europe. Within months of its founding, La Liga was shut down and Rizal was arrested, to be exiled at Dapitan, a remote province far to the south, on the coast of Mindanao. Among the founders was 19-year-old Andres Bonifacio from Tondo, who went underground, continuing his work for La Liga secretly under the auspices of the "children of the nation" Katipunan revolutionary movement.

The widely accepted version of events during the 1896 "Cry of Balintawak" that heralded the beginning of the Philippine Revolution follows that Bonifacio called to a crowd of assembled katipuneros to theatrically tear up their cédulas personales —their Spanish tax certificates. Thus began the first anticolonial revolution in Asia. 7 As a secret society, the exact location of the events that started the revolution in August 1896 remains obscure, but it is held to have happened in Balintawak, then a farming province on the outskirts of Manila. 8 It took place among nipa and bamboo farm dwellings, according to an eyewitness account, "at the house of Apolonio, reportedly one of the richest men in Balintawak at the time who threw open his barn and butchered his cows, pigs, and chickens for the Katipunan" is significant to the event. 9 The historian Soledad Borromeo notes that this fact is important, since the event is ingrained in the minds of Filipinos as the beginning of a revolution that is on a par with el grito de Dolores in Mexico or the Storming of the Bastille. 10

A Rome of Our Times

To gain access to the mindset of anti-colonialism that helped foment and instigate these events, and to consider how traditional dwellings of nipa and [End Page 122] bamboo were embroiled in the action, we can turn to Noli me Tangere (Touch me Not), perhaps the most famous work of Philippine literature by José Rizal, first published in Berlin in 1887. The Noli is a satire that paints a dismal picture of the Spanish colonial administrators as gluttonous narcissists and follows the tribulations of the protagonist Ibarra, who (like Rizal) returns to the Philippines after studying in Europe for the previous seven years. Returning with new eyes, Ibarra sees his country anew, and the injustices perpetrated by corrupt officials in government and church alike. The novel has been compared to Max Havelaar , the 1860 novel that attacked the activi-ties of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) in Java. 11 Rizal's provides a number of incidences in which we can unpack the role of the built environment for natives and colonial administrators, since the Noli conjures visions and iterations of nipa houses throughout. These serve not only to reify the importance of the dwelling as traditional, but to make it visible as a part of its history.

The neighbourhood of Malate, in Manila is described as a "thatched phoenix rising from its own ashes" where the residents' "thatched-roof houses, somewhat pyramid- or prism-shaped, built, like birds' nests, by the heads of families and hidden among the banana trees". 12 By way of introduction, the dwelling is described as a part of its ecological environment, the plural "heads" of families indicating how they were traditionally built in equal parts by a couple (women weaving nipa palm into panels, men constructing the bamboo framework). 13 It is "hidden away" among the foliage from which it comes, and to which it will return once the life span of the panels expires in a biannual cycle of repair and upkeep. A few pages later, in a description of the small Philippine town of San Diego, Rizal treats the urban context in an energetic exercise in dichotomies:

It was a Rome of our own times with the difference that in place of marble monuments and colosseums it had its monuments of sawali [woven bamboo panels] and its cockpit of nipa. 14 The curate was the Pope in the Vatican; the alferez of the Civil Guard, the King of Italy on the Quirinal: all, it must be understood, on a scale of nipa and bamboo. Here, as there, continual quarreling went on, since each wished to be the master and considered the other an intruder. 15

Outlandish comparisons are drawn up in a purposeful double act. It is both a takedown of corrupt Philippine officials in their comparison with the corruption of the papacy, translated to the urban environment of nipa and sawali . Rizal, ever the translator, renders lightweight materials alongside [End Page 123] marble and masonry while political corruption remains intact across each scenario. Architectural historians have described Rome as an environment scripted by the papacy into a form of sacred urbanis, where the Vatican was not just a physical city but followed pilgrims along the seven axes of the city wherever they went. 16 Rizal conjures the same image "of our own times", in which the translation of scales in spirituality and corruption are passed on to the fraudulent dealings among Spanish guards. Two scripts (urbanism and corruption) that deal with the problems of the administration are held amid humble settings, and he prompts the (Spanish-speaking) reader to notice the key material differences between Rome and the tropics.

As for the corrupt Spanish officials and social climbers, or the "parasites, spongers, and freeloaders that God, in his infinite goodness, has so lovingly multiplied in Manila", the figure of Doña Victorina de los Reyes de Espadaña (Doña Victorina) provides an example of how the colonial Spanish mind encountered native architecture. 17 Victorina, visiting a certain Captain Tiago, shows off all her verbosity,

criticizing the customs of the provincials, their nipa houses, their bamboo bridges; without forgetting to mention to the curate her intimacy with this and that high official and other persons of "quality" who were very fond of her. 18

While Victorina may criticize the places she finds herself in, emphasizing the construction materials of nipa and bamboo, her lack of integrity means that her surroundings are never good enough, that "I wasn't born to live here," as she remarks earlier in the chapter. While Rizal renders Victorina through colonial caricature and her disdain for her living conditions, he indicates a subtle reification of its importance.

The Secret Society of "ñtcllg Kztzzstzzszllg Kztñpxllzll"

Penned in a small booklet of 44 pages fashioned from 11 sheets of paper folded together, the founding document of the Katipunan—the secret society of which Rizal, without his knowledge, was made honorary president—appeared in 1892, five years after the Noli 's first printing. The document declared that the Noli invited Filipinos "to observe the reality by our brave and beloved brother Mr. Rizal" 19 ( Figure 2 ). "We should not believe the honeyed words about being guided and tutored," laments the opening of the document, which listed 22 abuses and forms of treachery committed by their colonial oppressors, " E… " (España, the country they do not call by [End Page 124]

"Casaysayan; Pinagcasunduan; Manga daquilang cautosan", January 1892. España. Ministerio de Defensa, Archivo General Militar de Madrid: Caja 5677, leg.1.37.

name). Written in cipher, the document stated: "Be it declared that from this day forward this archipelago is separated from Spain, and that no leadership is to be recognized other than this Supreme Katipunan." 20 With that, the Katipunan had declared themselves the first republic in Asia, one that would remake the archipelago, "these islands, which in time will be given a proper name" (other than that of a 16th-century Spanish prince understood to be part of the grammar of colonization from which they wish to break free).

Though he never intended for his two novels, the Noli and El Filibusterismo , to incite a revolution, the Spanish administrators had identified Rizal by proxy as one of the key instigators. After his exile in Dapitan, he was convicted of sedition, conspiracy and rebellion. Though he had little direct [End Page 125] contact with Katipuneros at this stage, his implication was entirely through his writings. Only four months after the revolution began with the "Cry of Balintawak", Rizal was executed by firing squad in Manila on 30 December 1896, solidifying his reputation as a martyr. It would be tempting to confuse this spirited organizing with nationalism, and the assumption would not be entirely incorrect (Rizal is remembered as a "national" hero today). But a more persuasive argument against calling it nationalism can be sensed in the Katipunan's predecessor, La Liga Filipina—a league—a network of minds, rather than a nation. If this is true, then it was identity that was at stake, and identity was crucial for autonomy. The frame of nationhood, so often seen retrospectively as necessary for colonial emancipation, was less important than self-determination. The league emphasized being a subject unto oneself, and colonial indifference to such perceptions still frames much of the struggle for independence that was already being sought throughout the 19th century.

Nationhood, others have argued, was a 20th-century framework for understanding sovereignty, territoriality, language and borders. 21 However, it is a powerful enough device that it inflects the way former colonial histories are viewed, making the specificity of resistance movements in the 19th century subject to frameworks of nationhood that would arrive much later. Nineteenth-century internationalism was, as exemplified by La Liga Filipina and the Katipunan, more complex than the kind of nation-based internationalism that would come in the 20th century because it relied on tropes—symbols, signs and in this case buildings—that sat outside of imposed colonial narratives. While Rizal created a caricature of Doña Victorina, providing an example of how Spanish colonists perceived native dwellings, he subverted her disdain into an opportunity to show the built environment as something she could not ever really know. Nipa and bamboo, in Rizal's telling, was an opportunity for self-identity on the urban scale. With this in mind, the nipa and bamboo dwelling offered a fitting shape for the Katipunan's self-identification as communal, flexible and self-sufficient.

Light Materials

A single photograph helps link the twin anti-colonial narratives of Katipunan organizing and Rizal's writing, and it helps to fill the gap of 60 years that lie between the Philippine Revolution and Amorsolo's Bayanihan . It was taken by an administrator of the Bureau of Science, dated 1911, of a "nipa district" in Tondo ( Figure 3 ). Tondo was one of the organizational bases of the Katipunan in the 1890s, a district on the outskirts of Manila. 22 Tondo [End Page 126]

"Nipa district in Tondo, Manila, P.I.", 1911. Bureau of Science, Thurlow & Fournier Collection, Ortigas Library, Manila.

was where Katipunan members were recruited and pamphlets were secretly circulated among a growing network of Katipuneros there and in the outlying provinces of Manila. In the image, we see that the border between road and houses is lined with a perimeter of fencing, concealing the living arrangements beyond from view. In its urban agglomeration, the nipa and bamboo dwelling is thus different from the individual, single house that Amorsolo provides. Here we see what Rizal was talking about as a "nipa phoenix": an accumulation of one building material that makes for an entire urban district that the photographer describes by its use of a single plant material. Providing a convenient camouflage in their ubiquity, nipa and bamboo were the backdrop of this organizing; indeed, their mundanity was the essence of secrecy.

The date, however, reveals a further aspect of American colonial Manila during a time of transformation. A year earlier, the Bureau of Health had begun a campaign to sanitize the city, creating a "sanitary barrio" that involved open sewage systems and the sorting of divisions of the city according to construction materials. Architectural historian Diana Martinez has shown how the Bureau of Health condemned the use of tropical building materials for their alleged spreading of disease, dividing Manila into light materials and heavy materials districts. Such light materials districts, she describes, were to be eventually replaced by heavy material districts of stone, masonry and eventually concrete, ostensibly impervious to cholera and other diseases. 23 It was material difference itself that constituted the deciding factor in hygiene and thus what was allowable, and the restrictions placed on light materials districts meant that they could not be maintained, allowed intentionally to fall into disrepair. What is striking about this division of materiality into heavy and light is the attention that American colonial administrators paid to what they deemed inferior, even hazardous. Indeed, the fact that nipa and [End Page 127] bamboo construction persisted well beyond Amorsolo's time is proof of its obdurate, perennial character, like the plants of nipa palm themselves (they are classified as a weed).

Colonial perspectives on the nipa dwelling, whether Spanish or American, consistently vilified a construction method equated with racial stereotypes. Thus, its use value for anti-colonial literature, revolutionary insurrectionists and nostalgic pastoral-nationalism renders a service in the form of "prism-shaped" thatched houses. For mid-century painters like Amorsolo, the trope of nationalism to which the nipa and bamboo house was attached came not through a nation prescribed from above (in its Spanish or American guises), but relied on an anti-colonial framework formed through, for example, Rizal's writing and the meetings of the Katipunan who were inspired by them. The prism of difference is a house typology whose construction methods, form and interpretation is continually refracted in every time period and every encounter. [End Page 128]

Will Davis is interested in architectural histories of colonialism, hydropolitics and folk narratives of environmentalism. His recently completed dissertation project, "Palm Politics: Warfare, Folklore, and Architecture" investigated dam-building and extractive agribusiness in the Philippines and wider Southeast Asia through the intersections of folklore and warfare in the 20th century. He teaches history, theory and criticism at the Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore.

1. The Amorsolo family gifted Bayanihan to the Museum of the University of Santo Tomas in 1998. R.C. Ladrido, "A Second Look: The Conservative and the Realist Tradition in Philippine Art". Vargas Museum, 2019. https://verafiles.org/articles/second-look-conservative-and-realist-tradition-philippine-ar [accessed 28 May 2020] ; Jorge B. Vargas Museum, "Revisiting the Conservative". Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center (blog), 13 April 2019, https://vargasmuseum.wordpress.com/2019/04/13/revisiting-the-conservative/ .

2. Leo Benesa, "What is Philippine about Philippine Art?", Philippine Sunday Express , 16 November 1975, pp. 24–7 .

3. The Hukbalahap insurgency, which lasted from 1945 to 1955, grew out of the organized resistance of Filipino farmers to the unfair tenant farming system in Central Luzon. Fuelled by anti-communist suspicion, the United States Armed Forces in the Far East provided assistance for crushing the rebellion. Nick Cullather, "America's Boy? Ramon Magsaysay and the Illusion of Influence", Pacific Historical Review 62, 3 (1993): 305–38 .

4. Other conservative realists of the "Mabini Art" circle who relied on the bahay kubo include: Elias Laxa, Romeo Enriquez, Cesar Buenaventura, Crispin Lopez, Serafin Serna, Miguel Galvez, Isidro Ancheta, Antonio Dumlao, Wenceslao Garcia, Gabriel Custodio, Ben Alano, Simon Saulog and Diosdado Lorenzo. R.C. Ladrido, "A Second Look: The Conservative and the Realist Tradition in Philippine Art", Vargas Museum, 2019, https://verafiles.org/articles/second-look-conservative-andrealist-tradition-philippine-ar [accessed 28 May 2020] .

5. Ergasto Ramón Arango, Spain, from Repression to Renewal (Westview Press, 1985), pp. 49–52, 109 . Teresita Miranda-Tchou, "Art as Political Subtext: A Philippine Centennial Perspective on Francisco Goya's Junta de la Réal Compañia de Filipinas (1815)", Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 24, 3/4 (1996): 206 .

6. La Solidaridad has long been recognized as the heart of the "propaganda movement", a project of the Comité de Propaganda of Manila to promote political reforms in the Philippines by appealing to a Spanish government in the peninsula that was more liberal and secular than that in the Philippines. John N. Schumacher, S.J., The making of a nation: Essays on nineteenth-century Filipino nationalism (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1991) . Megan C. Thomas, "Isabelo de Los Reyes and the Philippine Contemporaries of La Solidaridad", Philippine Studies 54, 3 (2006): 398 .

7. Alternately called the "Cry of Pugad Lawin", the controversy is set out by Soledad Masangkay Borromeo in The Cry of Balintawak: A contrived controversy (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1998), pp. 24–5 .

8. The discreet fact of the location in which the occasion took place is the subject of controversy. Today it is engulfed by Metro Manila.

9. The onlooker was Vicente Samson, a 12-year-old boy, whose account is retold in: Borromeo, The Cry of Balintawak , p. 33 .

10. Ibid., p. 3.

11. Though the novels have been compared, their similarities lie mainly in terms of their anti-colonial narrative and geographical setting. Multatuli was the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker, a white Dutchman who spent time in the Dutch East Indies, while Rizal was Filipino, and while Multatuli criticized the workings of a capitalist extractive system, which was the case of the VOC, Rizal concentrated on the overlapping of church and state in creating an unjust society. Max Havelaar was published by Jakob van Lennep, who changed many of the names and disguised various aspects of the book, circulating it only to close friends. The book came out in 1875 and caused a sensation, sending "shudder" through the Dutch nation. Rizal read it in 1888, and in a letter to his friend and publisher Blumentritt, wrote, "Multatuli's book, which I shall send you as soon as I receive it, is extraordinarily interesting. Without doubt it is much superior to mine. But, as the author himself is Dutch, his attacks are not as violent as mine are." [ The Rizal-Blumentritt Correspondence , Vol. 2: 1890–1896, trans. Encarnacion Alzona (Manila: Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission), p. 219.] Peter Schreurs, "Multatuli, A Soul-Brother of Rizal", Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 14, 3 (1986): 189–95 ; Multatuli, Max Havelaar, of De Koffij-Veilingen Der Nederlandsche Handelsmaatschappij , 3. druk (Amsterdam: K.H. Schadd, 1871) .

12. Jose Rizal, Noli Me Tangere: Touch Me Not , trans. Harold Augenbraum (New York: Penguin Books, 2006), p. 55 .

13. Donn V. Hart, The Cebuan Filipino Dwelling in Caticugan: Its Construction and Cultural Aspects . Yale University, Southeast Asia Studies, Cultural Report Series (New Haven: Yale University, Southeast Asia Studies, 1959) .

14. A traditional "cockpit" is here a space for cockfighting.

15. Rizal's original text reads "era como la Roma contemporánea con la diferencia de que en vez de monumentos de mármol y coliseos, tenía monumentos de saualî y gallera de nipa […] se entiende, todo en proporción con el saualî y la gallera de nipa" (p. 73). I have used the 2014 Augenbraum translation in this case since it remains most faithful to the original Spanish. Rizal, Noli (Augenbraum 2014), p. 66 .

16. Robin Evans, Translations from Drawing to Building (MIT Press, 1997) .

17. From the introduction, "los parásutism moscas ó colados". Rizal, Noli , p. 5 .

18. "Se habló del viaje; doña Victorina lució su verbosidad criticando las costumbres de los provincianos, sus casas de nipa, los puentes de caña, sin olvidarse de decir al cura sus amistades con el segundo cabo, con el alcalde tal, con el oidor cual, con el intendente, etc." (p. 226 Spanish; p. 285 Eng. trans).

19. "Casaysayan; Pinagcasundoan; Manga daquilang cautosan", January 1892. Archivo General Militar de Madrid: Caja 5677, leg.1.37 .

20. The original text reads: "Ysñllzszyszy vzg bxfzt sz zrzc llz ñtc llz zllg vzllgz Kzpxjczllg ñtc zy fxvllfllwzjzy sz Qspzllñz zt wzlzllg kñllñkñjzjz zt kñkñjzlljñllg Pzvxvxllc kxllg dñ ñtcllg Kztzzstzzszllg Kztñpxllzll." Deciphered, this becomes: Ysinasaysay mag buhat sa arao na ito na ang manga Kapuloang ito ay humihiwalay sa Espania at walang kinikilala at kikilanling Pamumuno kung di itong Kataastaasang Katipunan . "Casaysayan; Pinagcasundoan; Manga daquilang cautosan", January 1892 .

21. While Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities delivered a powerful demand for reinterpreting nationalism, in this context it is his later work, Under Three Flags , that is useful for interpreting proto-nationalism and its alternatives: Benedict R. O'G Anderson, Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination (London; New York: Verso, 2005) .

22. Jim Richardson, "Notes on the Katipunan in Manila, 1892–96", Katipunan: Documents and Studies , http://www.kasaysayan-kkk.info/ [accessed January 2021] .

23. Martinez notes that "despite claims that it was a more enlightened and democratic ruler than its colonial predecessors, the American colonial regime's policies of segregation were no less real than those of the Spanish […] articulated in the banal technocratic language of building code." Diana Jean Sandoval Martinez, "Concrete Colonialism: Architecture, Urbanism, Infrastructure, and the American Colonial Project in the Philippines". PhD dissertation, 2017, p. 193.

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Construction techniques used in Bamboo Architecture

Bamboo is a material that embodies values of sustainability and durability while being cost-effective. A fast-growing grass, bamboo has been used as a building material since time immemorial. With over twelve hundred species across 110 genera, this primitive grass is a versatile material. A Bamboo consists of a rhizome which is its anchor underground, a culm that is its stem, nodes, and internodes.

 While we widely use bamboo in various small-scale cottage industries, its use in the construction industry is because of its structural and economic advantages. A Bamboo culm has twice the compressive strength of concrete and equivalent tensile strength of steel, thus making it one of the strongest construction materials. We cannot directly use bamboo for construction post-harvesting. An untreated bamboo culm has a brief life span and is prone to rot and insect attack. Prophylactic treatments such as water immersion, curing, smoking, chemical application, and whitewashing with slaked lime remove all the starch, protecting the bamboo from deterioration. 

Although bamboo has several advantages, construction with bamboo has its challenges. A bamboo culm has a round profile which makes the connections complicated. As the fibers in bamboo only grow in the vertical direction, it is not suitable for cross loads. The outer surface of the bamboo lacks grip and is very slippery, making connections difficult. Primarily there are two types of connections that are used to address the aforementioned problems while constructing with bamboo.

1) Traditional connections

• A) Friction tight rope connection
• B) Wedge connection 
• C) Plug-in bolt connection
• D) Positive Fitting 

2) Modern connections

• A) Bamboo-Tec
• B) Transportation Armature
• C) Induo-Anchor Technique
• D) Pan knot space truss

Friction tight rope connection 

The ‘friction tight rope’ connection is widely used in traditional construction . These connections use natural materials like rattan, coconut fiber to join the bamboo culms together. Lashings, wraps, fraps, and clove-hitch are some knots used in these connections. To get tighter connections, we use green bamboo strips. These strips are watered before use and shrink while drying, resulting in a stronger connection.

Wedge connection 

In a wedge connection, a wedge-shaped wooden piece is driven at the joint of two bamboo members.

However, this connection requires additional reinforcement through the use of lashing or bolts. 

Plug-in bolt connection 

The Plug-in bolt connection is not widely used and works on the similar principle of the tenon and mortise joint in wooden joineries. We must take care to avoid using the plug-in bolt connection close to the edge of the culm to prevent the splitting of the bamboo.

Positive Fitting 

Positive fitting connections are widely used in traditional bamboo construction. These connections involve carving a hole in a bamboo culm and inserting a bamboo of a slightly smaller diameter. The joint is further strengthened using bolts or dowels. The disadvantage of this jointing technique is the reduction of the strength of the bamboo because of the cutting of the hole.

  Bamboo-Tec

Bamboo is a natural material and is thus subject to the irregularities of diameter within a single culm. The ‘Bamboo-Tec’ connection is a modern technique developed by Bruno Huber to counteract these irregularities. This connection uses bamboo culms that are cut to the desired length and are capped with artificial resin. The end caps are made of steel or aluminum and have circular grooves on the inner side. These grooves facilitate a stronger connection between the cap and the bamboo.

1 single strunt

3 connection element

5 strunt axis

10 thread bore

11 cross bore

12 joint element

14 rotation axis

  Transportation Armature  

This method involves the threading of hollow bamboo culms with a metal armature. We fill the residual cavity with concrete. This connection increases the speed of construction by eliminating the time required for the fabrication of dowels.

  Induo-Anchor Technique

The Induo-Anchor technique is used for bamboos with larger diameters. The joint comprises an anchor, which is a spherical node usually made of cast-iron. The node is drilled and tapped at varying angles to create desired connections. We thread the bamboo culms into the nodes using conical end bolts.

  Pan knot space truss

A pan knot space truss comprises two components: a ball knot and thread rods which form the intermediate connection between the central knot and the bamboo culm. The advantage of this connection is the provision for dismantling. We use this connection for canes with a smaller diameter.

The conventional applications of bamboo in the building industry range from scaffoldings to structural and non-structural elements of a dwelling. The construction of a bamboo house is characterized by a frame-system similar to timber construction. The wall, floor, and roof elements are interconnected and depend on each other for stability. While we join whole bamboo culms to form the structural frame of the house, halved bamboos are used to form floor decks, walls, and roof tiles. We weave together, flattened bamboo strips to create mats that are then used as screens or walls. Door, windows, rain gutters, pipes, roof coverings are some non-structural applications of bamboo.

An unconventional application of bamboo is its use as concrete reinforcement. The tensile strength and strength to weight ratio of bamboo is comparable with steel making it replaceable. With the availability of steel steadily declining, bamboo is a viable and eco-friendly alternative. 

 Bamboo with its diverse applications and fast-growing characteristics is a sustainable alternative for steel and timber. This material has been an integral part of the vernacular construction industry for ages and with the development of new joineries and construction techniques, bamboo steadily becoming a part of the contemporary construction industry.

Anushri Kulkarni is a 24-year-old, Mumbai based architect with a passion for green architecture. She is a voracious reader and consumes all genres with equal gusto. Apart from being an architect, she is also a budding architecture and interior photographer.

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Bamboo Treehouses: Above and beyond

Jan 24, 2022 | Alternative Lifestyle , Bamboo Products | 1 comment

Bamboo is a marvelous building material that is both modern and ancient. It confers both simplicity and elegance. And nothing expresses these paradoxical properties better than a bamboo treehouse. When built with care and precision, a bamboo treehouse can withstand the elements and blend seamlessly with its surroundings.

Reflections from a bamboo builder

But I digress. I want to talk about the beauty and utility of bamboo, a resource long known and ingrained in the cultural heritage of a vast swath of humanity. I want to talk about how bamboo is such a natural structural component of a tropical treehouse. Bamboo can be grown quite quickly, and with over 1200 species, a great variety of characteristics are available for various structural components. I embarked on this journey to build bamboo treehouses on my finca on the West Coast of Puerto Rico. I planted over 30 species of bamboo, including two giants, Guadua angustifolia and Dendrocalamus asper . 

Bamboo confronts the forces of nature

That was the easy part. The real world has many natural hazards that threaten the structural integrity and lifespan of a  bamboo treehouse. Some notable considerations include termites, powder post beetles, wind (and especially hurricane-force wind), rain, and sun, each of these.

The powder post beetle is yet another threat. Its presence, which needs to be dutifully inspected in all components, is indicated by tiny holes in the bamboo. You can freeze small components for no less than 48 hours. Larger components with signs of infestation should not be used.

Putting bamboo to the ultimate test

Caveat: Hurricanes generate a multitude of tornadoes, with highly random and extreme winds. A direct hit is, in my opinion, not survivable. And this brings me to the very last design consideration. The Hooch Treehouse is a transient, impermanent, ephemeral structure, with a small footprint (literally and figuratively.) It can be re-built with minimal effort. And, in the time you enjoyed the view, the sleep-outs, and the cool, quiet ambiance, your bamboo forest has been growing, becoming an abundant and available resource.

Bamboo support

Jo’s work is indeed inspiring. I very much look forward to seeing him again and to learning from him!

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Pushing Boundaries with Bamboo: A Structural Engineering Case Study

• Written by Rodrigo Istchuk
• Published on September 26, 2023

In a world grappling with environmental challenges, forward-thinking architects and engineers are increasingly leaning towards more sustainable solutions. While steel and concrete have long dominated the construction industry, bamboo is now stepping into the limelight as a compelling alternative. Thanks to its potent mix of strength, flexibility, and eco-friendliness, bamboo is fast becoming the go-to material for those keen on pushing the boundaries of sustainable architecture.

Bridging this transformative moment in sustainable design is the timely arrival of the "Bamboo Structures" eBook series, which this article is based on. Acting as a touchstone in the field, the first volume focuses on the structural design process behind the Luum Temple —a masterclass in bamboo engineering. The guide serves as more than just a theoretical text; it is a comprehensive manual teeming with real-world insights, cutting-edge research, and practical expertise.

The use of bamboo as a structural material is far from a new phenomenon; it has a rich history that stretches back thousands of years. Despite its ancient roots, much of this traditional knowledge has been underestimated as the modern construction sector became overly focused on mineral-based materials. Today, however, bamboo is experiencing a global resurgence, bringing to light a harmonious blend of ancient wisdom with modern engineering. This fusion not only offers new avenues for sustainable architecture but also feels like a long-awaited, inevitable evolution of the construction industry.

The Luum Temple: An Icon of Sustainable Design

Nestled in the lush landscapes of Tulum, Mexico, the Luum Temple is more than just an eye-catching architectural marvel; it's a pioneering example of what happens when traditional wisdom meets modern engineering. Designed to stand against 250 km/h hurricane winds and significant seismic forces, this structure embodies the compelling possibilities that arise when we harness bamboo’s unique properties as a structural material.

The architectural vision was conceptualized by the CO-LAB Design Office , brought to life by Architectura Mixta , and inspired by the iconic work of legendary architect Felix Candela . The engineering was led by Esteban Morales , who describes the structural system as five intersecting hyperbolic paraboloids made of bamboo arches and split bamboo beams.

Bamboo’s tensile strength-to-weight ratio often surpasses that of steel, making it not just strong but also lightweight. Flexibility is another advantage: especially when used in split form, bamboo enables architects to craft organic, flowing shapes that defy traditional geometrical constraints, facilitating the adoption of innovative structural approaches that rely on shape stiffness and biomimicry. Bamboo ’s rapid growth and ability to sequester carbon also position it as an environmentally superior alternative to traditional construction materials, including timber.

On the other hand, working with bamboo also requires special care in certain aspects. Due to its lightweight nature, particular attention must be paid to foundations, cross-bracing and structural stiffness, which are essential to counterbalance its vulnerability to wind forces. Although bamboo's low shear strength presents a challenge, an adequate comprehension of its properties allows for creative systems to compensate for this, and a critical focus on treatment is also non-negotiable. The material can also be prone to insect attacks and has a limited lifespan, making it important to include proactive 'preservation by design' approaches as an integral part of any bamboo-based construction.

The Luum Temple embraces a balance between these advantages and challenges. The interconnected roof diaphragm, for instance, is made of cross-layers of bamboo mats —a modern nod to empirical techniques of the past that give the structure impressive resistance to lateral loads. To account for bamboo's natural flex and movement, the structure incorporates articulated foundations and a central compression ring. This approach not only captures bamboo's intrinsic strengths but also circumvents its limitations, demonstrating a model way to build sustainably and innovatively.

The Engineering Process

A defining feature of the Luum Temple project was its successful integration of up-to-date bamboo engineering concepts with a timeless architectural framework. Rather than merely following standard procedures, the engineering team ventured into new territory by developing custom methods, all while adhering to internationally recognized standards. This inventive approach adeptly navigated through Mexico's intricate regulatory framework surrounding bamboo construction and also set a solid precedent for future bamboo projects.

The technical workflow of the project was facilitated by a robust software toolkit. The structural design process started with AutoCAD 3D, where the structure’s geometry was modeled and compatibilized for the next steps. Following this, structural analysis was carried out using specialized structural analysis software SAP2000 v.14.

The structure was divided into three main element types to orient the design process:

• Arches , spanning in the edges of the structure and radially from the center;
• Joists , spanning in layers and connecting the main arches over several layers;
• Roof diaphragm , conformed by the rigid surface resulting from several layers of joist triangulation and split weaving below the roof.

As the project is located in a region prone to hurricane winds and seismic activities, the engineering strategy emphasized shape stiffness, triangulation, and a robust diaphragm. These elements were specifically selected to offset lateral forces that could compromise the structure. Consequently, each component in the structure was interconnected and designed to function cohesively, ensuring resilience against some of nature's most extreme forces.

In terms of load magnitudes, considerable seismic loads and 250km/h hurricane wind loads governed the design. These were combined with dead loads (weight of the structure and roofing) and live loads to obtain the design internal forces for each element of the structure. For this, the allowable stress method was employed, complying with the most adequate approach for structural bamboo design. The loads were then multiplied by the prescribed load coefficient for each of the required load combinations according to bamboo-specific structural codes. Finally, the maximum internal forces found in the most stressed arch, joist, and roof diaphragm elements were considered for the final design of the structural elements. 

Equipped with structural insights, such as the internal forces acting in the structure for each load combination, the structural components were designed based on bamboo-specific building codes, such as the NSR-10 (Colombia) and the ISO 22156 (International). Specialized software like WoodWorks® Connections, SFS Timber Work, and APF Wood Joint were then employed for the design of the connecting elements between structural components. 

At the uppermost part of the structure, the primary arches converge, interconnected by a central steel compression ring. This design feature ensures each arch tip converges towards a centralized point, reminiscent of a star's radiating arms. Drawing a parallel to airplane wings, which flex and bounce to a certain extent during flight to prevent structural failure, bamboo structures adopt a similar engineering principle. To ensure the bamboo components can flex and adapt during adverse events like storms or earthquakes without fracturing, the central compression ring incorporates robust hinged connections, as illustrated in the subsequent images.

In this project, a detailed analysis was undertaken to determine the mechanical connections at the base. Designed in a hinged manner, similar to the central compression ring, the connections between bamboo arches and the foundation permit rotational movement. This design strategy ensures that bamboo elements are spared from excess shear and bending forces, which aren't their strengths. Instead, the bamboo primarily experiences tension and compression forces parallel to its fibers.

As we've seen, bamboo isn't just a rapidly renewable resource —it's a structural material with the potential to change the landscape of sustainable architecture in the upcoming decades. From its historical roots to its modern-day applications, bamboo proves that when tradition meets innovation, magic happens.

Unlock the Potential of Bamboo Structures

For those serious about pioneering the next wave of green construction and understanding the practical aspects of using bamboo as a structural material, the "Bamboo Structures" eBook series can be an essential guide. This recent publication dives deep into methodologies, design details, and example applications, serving as an invaluable resource for both novices and experts in the field. Developed based on the structural calculation methods used for the Luum Temple project, this first volume addresses a long-awaited resource gap, offering a clear lens into bamboo structural design for the wider audience. 

Learn more about the “Bamboo Structures” eBook here.

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The dai stilted house.

By Jim Goodman in Features on July 1, 2015

When the ancestors of Xishuangbanna 's Dai people first migrated to southern Yunnan over two millennia ago they discovered the lush valleys were suitable places to grow the kind of rice that was so important to their way of living. So the new settlers selected sites near rivers or streams and set about building the kind of houses that they were accustomed to back in their original southeast China homeland.

The model was the stilted house, with high, sloping roofs and adjoining open-air balcony, which is still the norm in the twenty-first century for most Dai villages in the prefecture. Its structure is perfectly suited to the weather and environment. The stilts keep the living quarters above the damp and flood-prone ground and away from snakes, scorpions and other wild creatures. The high, peaked roofs protect the interior from rain and allow for plenty of ventilation. And the overall shape, set against the undulating hills, is perfectly harmonious in its environment.

The Dai, or their Baiyue ( 百越 ) ancestors, were not the only people in ancient times to use stilted houses. In fact, the earliest archaeological evidence of them comes from Zhejiang province, dating back at least 6,000 years. They were also in use in central Yunnan about 3,300 years ago, according to relics unearthed near Jianchuan ( 剑川 ). So the Dai may not have been the original inventors. But according to their own mythology they were, or at least their culture-bearing hero Pa Ya Shanmudi was.

Dai legends vary, but Pa Ya Shanmudi was either the original leader of the Dai race or its chief priest. The story begins in the aftermath of a great flood that wiped out life in the plains. The Dai then were living in caves in the hills. After the floodwaters receded, the population began to increase so fast there were not enough caves to shelter everyone from the elements. Pa Ya Shanmudi decided to lead his people to a new location on the lowlands.

After a long journey they finally came to what seemed like an appropriate site. On a knoll just above the plain they rested beneath the canopy of an enormous tree and observed a rainstorm as it broke upon the surrounding area. Pa Ya Shanmudi noticed that the rain pummeled a patch of wild taro plants, but the raindrops kept splashing off the surface of the leaves. When the storm ended he took four thin tree trunks, stuck them in the ground and then created a roof of interlaced branches, covered by a thatch of taro leaves. This was the first Dai shelter.

His people copied the design and built their own structures. No sooner had they settled beneath the roofs than another storm broke. The taro leaf thatch kept them dry for a while, but eventually the roof began leaking and the people were soon thoroughly soaked. Even after the rain had ceased, water kept dripping through the roofs. Pa Ya Shanmudi angrily abandoned the project and led his people back to the caves. But, knowing life was basically no longer tenable in the hills, he continued to ponder the problem of a proper shelter for his people.

One day he happened to spot a dog sitting on the ground during a rain. He observed that the dog's body, seated on its haunches with its forelegs straight, formed a slope. And the rainwater slid down its back while the ground beneath it remained dry. So Pa Ya Shanmudi ordered a new structure built. This time the two front poles were tall and the rear poles were short, with the same kind of roof, but now sloping. This was the second Dai shelter.

All went well when the first rains came, for the water ran right down the side of the angled roof and did not leak inside. Everybody remained dry. But then the storm kicked up further, the wind reversed and the rain began pouring in the front of the shelter and soaked the people through and through. Well, that kind of shelter wasn't going to work either, so Pa Ya Shanmudi once more led his people back to the hills and resumed brooding over the problem.

At this point in the story a Dai equivalent of a deus ex machina enters the narrative. Having observed and admired Pa Ya Shanmudi's sincere efforts to better the lot of his people, the gods in heaven decided to help him with a lesson on how better to learn from nature. One of them transformed into a golden phoenix and, after summoning up a storm, flew down in the rain to Pa Ya Shanmudi. The bird called out to him to observe how it stood tall on its long legs as its wings, slightly spread, resisted the winds from all directions and allowed for the rains to run off.

So here was the solution. Like the legs of the phoenix, the Dai built a structure on stilts. Like the wings and tail of the phoenix, they used sloping roofs on all sides. This withstood storms blowing from any direction, while the elevated living quarters would always remain dry. This was the third Dai shelter, now more properly called a true Dai house. In memory of the source of the inspiration for the house, the Dai still call it a 'phoenix house', or hon hen in their language.

The original was no doubt a lot simpler than what we find today, with extra gables and sliding windows and sometimes open-air balconies. Wooden roof tiles have largely replaced the original thatch, too. Yet its suitability for the climate of Xishuangbanna is obvious by its continued use millennia after its introduction, as well as by its basic adoption by most of the peoples who later moved into the hills.

Basically the Dai house is an elevated rectangle with roofs like the sides of a triangle. Access is by a staircase at the front entrance, though in the past it was a notched log. Attached to one end is an open-air balcony, with its own staircase or notched log. People use this area to dry crops, laundry, dyed cloth or thread, or to just sit out in the sun for a while. Within the one-story building, the cooking, sleeping, reception of guests and other activities of daily life all take place on this single floor. There may be also be partitions for the kitchen, the sleeping quarters of the elders, or a small family shrine. Generally, at night the family spreads mattresses and pillows along the floor and all sleep together.

Besides the interior, the hosts might also invite guests, if the weather is good, to sit outside on small round stools on the balcony. Nowadays, with piped water coming into every village, the family water tank might well be mounted on the balcony, and perhaps a solar heater, pigeon coop or satellite dish as well. Below the living quarters, the space under the house is high enough for people to stand up easily. Here the people stored their plows and other agricultural tools, as well as their looms, spinning wheels and thread winders. Nowadays the looms are mostly gone and the space occupied instead by motorbikes and tractors. Dai houses sit in separate compounds, originally delineated by bamboo fences or hedges. More recently they have taken to brick walls. Within the yard, part of which might be used as a vegetable garden, sits a small, elevated building that is the granary. In the rear of the yard was the outhouse. To clean themselves after defecation, the people used rectangular bamboo chips, rounded off and angled at each end. Since the twentieth century introduction of paper, of course, they don't do this anymore. Yet in the old days, specific Dai villages were assigned the production of such bamboo toilet chips for the royal household.

That would soon change, although not because of tourism so much as due to the sudden wealth generated by two booming businesses — rubber and tea. Given the go-ahead by government reforms that allowed long-term leases on formerly state-owned land, Dai families joined the rush to clear forests and plant rubber trees, even replacing the traditional village bamboo grove with a patch of rubber trees. Prices peaked in the mid-90s, then fell by half at the end of the decade, only to begin rising steadily after the turn of the century. The rapid spread of rubber cultivation also upset Xishuangbanna's ecological balance . By 2010, rubber plantations covered 20 percent of the land and the prefecture's natural forest cover had shrunk to only 26 percent. Voracious rubber trees eat up all the nutrients in the soil, so that virtually nothing else can grow on a plantation. The plantations need more water than other crops and the run-off is three times that of a natural forest. This puts strains on the local water supplies and causes wells to dry up fast. Due to these factors, the government finally had to step in and declare the rest of Xishuangbanna's forests as protected reserves.

The mania took hold after a cabal of speculators cornered Xishuangbanna's tea market, bought everything available and drove up prices. Cultivators planted more tea bushes and Dai farmers in the plains of Menghai County created tea gardens at the edges of their rice fields. Ambitious investors from other parts of China arrived to contract for some of the expanded production and set up tea factories of their own. By mid-decade there were 3,000 tea merchants and manufacturers in Xishuangbanna, all intensely competitive and suspicious of one another. By 2007, the price of Pu'er tea had risen to ten times what it sold for at the start of the millennium. But it wasn't just the speculators who made money. Pickers and growers could, at the peak of the frenzy, get 200 yuan per kilogram for fresh leaves and 300 yuan per kilogram for leaves sun-dried in one of the village squares. The tea bubble burst in 2008 , when prices fell by 90 percent. Over a third of the new tea factories closed down and outside speculators took their money elsewhere. But many local people, including Dai farmers, got rich from the boom years.

In general, once a few families took the lead in making new-style houses the rest of the village households hurried to ape them. Within a few years villages which formerly consisted of nothing but traditional stilted wooden houses were transformed into villages of nothing but identical concrete boxes. This was especially true in Menghai County, where the bulk of Pu'er tea was grown. In some cases the transformation was not quite so drastic, as the new houses at least maintained the angled, Dai-style roofs, and perhaps the open-air balconies as well. These would likely have satellite dishes placed on them, because televisions, automobiles, motorbikes and designer clothing were part of the spending spree as well. In Jinghong ( 景洪 ) and Mengla ( 勐腊 ), the urge to abandon traditional Dai houses has not been so strong. Just downriver from Jinghong, in Ganlanba ( 橄榄坝 ), traditional Dai architecture is the main feature of Dai Park — a collection of five old villages — opened as a tourist attraction in 1999. The houses are all in the traditional style and by law must be kept that way, though the park authorities also pay for repairs and renovations.

Editor's note : This article by author Jim Goodman was originally posted on his website Black Eagle Flights (requires proxy). There you can find accounts and photos of Goodman's 40 years in China and Southeast Asia. Collections of his works — many of them about Yunnan — can be purchased on Amazon and Lulu . Goodman has also recently founded Delta Tours , where he guides cultural and historical journeys through Vietnam, and soon, through Yunnan as well.

Images : Jim Goodman

• architecture
• Dai minority
• Menghai County
• stilted house
• traditional houses
• Xishuangbanna

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Great article, excellent accompanying pictures. Thank you!

Interesting. I'm dwelling on the intro section. If the Dai ancestors came from SE China how did they come to be more religiously and linguistically aligned with Lao or Thai people, as well as often looking more SE Asian or hill tribe-like?

Dai, Lowland Lao and Thai peoples all have ancestors from China - not all within China became 'sinicized' - the Dai did not, though they have been becoming increasingly sinicized more recently. Until recent centuries, and even into recent centuries, contact between the Dai and Lao and Thai and other Tai groups continued - modern nationalist borders are more strongly established, and the areas within them more culturally colonized, than those of former empires and kingdoms.

Thanks for the good read, Jim. Although I didn't get to see it like you did in the 80s when all the houses were traditional, I still greatly enjoyed traveling through rural Xishuangbanna and seeing all the traditional architecture that remains, as well as the interesting traditional-modern hybrids which you so well describe.

I have a question about Mangjingfa though. The Mangjingfa I'm familiar with is kind of a cluster of Dai-themed nongjiale just 5 km from downtown Jinghong, near the Big Buddha. Is that the place you're talking about? It's not 20 km away. There's another village I found called Mangjingfa (different "jing" character— 曼井法 ) 40 km away, but it doesn't seem like that's the one you're talking about.

@Geogramatt: the confusion with distances from Jinghong to Manjingfa is my mistake. I've changed the article to read "five kilometers" instead of the erroneous 20. Thanks.

Another great article Jim. Super Mengla time-lapse there!

An equivalent of the Jinghong valley would hammer home the changes ... literally sleepy farmer town to skyscraper neon city!

We're in Prague (the city not the cafe) of all places, but miss hanging out with you guys talking about Dai architecture for the 1000th time!

@DanTheMan: Dai and Lao and Thai people are collectively known as Tai peoples, or Tai-Kadai peoples. They are also closely related to the Zhuang minority. They emigrated from southeast China. Their original belief system was not Buddhism, rather forms of animism, some of which are still respected.

Various Tai peoples along this journey exposed to foreign belief systems: Chinese religions, Theravada Buddhism, Vajrayana Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. However, they are very predominantly Theravada Buddhists... with a syncretic approach to prior belief systems and tolerant to parallel practice.

However, the writing system used by the Dai did come from the south, up from Chiang Mai region through the Shan States of Burma. Ultimately that in turn was based on other Indian abugida scripts which are eventually traced to Brahmi and Kharosthi. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmi_script and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharosthi

Unfortunately the traditional script used in southwestern Yunnan (Dehong area) and southeastern Yunnan (Xishuangbanna area) were different. The problem was made worse by Mao-era government refactoring of the language, which has since gone on yet again, and by government meddling in the traditional education at monasteries. These days most Dai kids there probably can't read Dai, or can only read one version. In another generation, I'd be surprised if it isn't effectively extinct as a written language.

Glad I saw some if these in XBanna a few years back. Going to assume they are all replaced now.

Nope, not all replaced.

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Ethiopian vernacular bamboo architecture and its potentials for adaptation in modern urban housing: A case study

2019, Modern Engineered Bamboo Structures

Ethiopia is not only endowed with a huge bamboo resource but also has a very rich traditional bamboo housing construction techniques, which have been in use arguably for more than thousand years. These construction practices have several benefits including provision of affordable houses for millions living in rural areas of the country, employment creation, reducing burden on natural forests for housing construction, and income generation. Two types of bamboo species are existing in Ethiopia namely, Oxytentra abyssinica commonly known as lowland bam-boo and Yushania alpine commonly known as highland bamboo. Both species are used for con-struction of residential houses where several vernacular architectural design approaches are exhibited including the Sidama house in Southern Ethiopia. This study particularly focuses on exploring how the existing bamboo construction techniques in Sidama region, provide a platform for provision of houses for emerging towns in bamboo growing areas in ...

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The Role of Bamboo in Sustainable Living

Ambient scholarship award-winning essay by ada lian.

Each year, Ambient is proud to provide financial assistance to a student enrolled in a two or four-year course of study at an accredited school in the U.S.  This year’s winner, Ada Lian, is a student at Cornell University. Ms. Lian delved into the ability of bamboo to reduce man’s carbon footprint without reducing the quality of life. Her winning essay appears below.

The Ubiquitous Role Bamboo Has in Making a More Sustainable World

It is indisputable that the Earth has been suffering for decades and even centuries. The planet’s average surface temperature has increased about 1.62 Fahrenheit since the late 19th century due to the increased greenhouse gas emissions. According to NASA , the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets lost an average of about 413 billion tons per year which consequently increased the sea level about 8 inches in the last century. As natural disasters have become more drastic and frequent, an average of 25.3 million people has been displaced each year since 2008. Although climate change has been discussed frequently, more needs to be done to raise awareness and combat the climate crisis. Consumers and businesses need to be more conscious of their carbon footprint – bamboo is a solution to reducing that footprint.

Bamboo is a grass plant that has about 1,200 species and occupies about 37 million hectares of the total forest area of the world. It is considered one of the most sustainable resources because it grows rapidly and requires less energy to treat compared to wood. A unique aspect that makes it stand out from other natural resources is that it can be used for a diverse range of purposes, from culinary uses to architectural uses. The multipurpose, rapidly growing bamboo provides a more sustainable substitute for other renewable and nonrenewable resources.

Culinary: Meat Production

For example, since antiquity, bamboo has been used for multiple purposes in Yunnan. The province of Yunnan is located in southwest China and has the most abundant bamboo forest in the world with about 250 species. Through conducting interviews with native inhabitants and carrying out field surveys, it is determined that of the 250 species, about 100 are edible and nutritious. In fact, bamboo shoots have many advantageous properties. For example, shoots have a high protein content (up to 15%), contain many vitamins and minerals, and have a low-fat content.

These advantages make bamboo shoots a suitable substitute for meat protein. It is evident that bamboo shoots do not contain as much protein as meat products as the protein content in beef is around two times the amount in bamboo shoots, however, the recommended dietary allowance is only about 0.8 g of protein per kg per day. In fact, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that the average American male and female consume about double the daily recommended intake of protein . Producing meat protein such as beef and poultry requires more energy and emits more greenhouse gases such as methane. In fact, a regular diet has greenhouse gas emissions of about 3.88 kg CO2-equivalents per person per day, and a diet that consists of plant proteins drastically decreases the greenhouse gas emissions by 49.6 percent. By introducing bamboo shoots into one’s diet and reducing meat protein intake, one can reduce their carbon footprint caused by the production of beef and poultry.

Textile: Fast-Fashion

In addition to using bamboo for culinary purposes, bamboo is also implemented in the textile/fashion industry as a biodegradable material. Bamboo is known as the “green fiber” because it grows without the use of pesticides and fertilizers, it is in fact a more sustainable fiber than other eco-fibers such as cotton and hemp. Bamboo fabric is lightweight, strong, and has great moisture-wicking properties. This makes dying the fabric more time and cost-efficient than dying cotton. Unlike cotton, it does not need to be pre-treated with sodium hydroxide to increase the fabric’s luster and dye affinity.

Most importantly, bamboo fibers can help counter the waste and pollution generated by fast-fashion. Fast fashion brands frequently update their clothing products in-store in response to the ever-changing fashion trends, this consequently leads to a shorter life cycle of garments and more waste. According to a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the fashion industry will use up to a quarter of the world’s annual carbon budget by 2050. Additionally, the industry cuts down 150 million trees annually and a truck of clothes gets sent to a landfill every second. Bamboo fiber is a solution to the negative environmental impacts of fast-fashion because it is completely biodegradable and the decomposition process does not release any pollutants . Garments made from bamboo fibers are durable, making them last longer and at the end of the garments’ life-cycle, it will not contribute more waste to the Earth. Therefore, it is essential to introduce more eco-friendly fibers into the textile industry to raise consumer awareness and create timeless pieces that would last a lifetime.

Daily Uses for Bamboo

Carbon sequestration.

So far, bamboo products are only discussed in terms of being a sustainable substitute to minimize the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Bamboo products can also be discussed in the context of carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration refers to the storage of carbon in plants, soil, the ocean, et cetera that has the potential to become carbon dioxide. While combustion and decomposition release carbon from plant tissues, which combines with the oxygen in the atmosphere to create carbon dioxide, photosynthesis transfers carbon in the atmosphere to be stored in biomass and soil. Therefore, autotrophs such as bamboos are terrestrial carbon sinks as they retain carbon and prevent it from entering the atmosphere. A study was conducted to determine the role bamboo products play in carbon storage. The study took place in north-east India where bamboo sustains 70% of the rural workforce. The carbon storage of various bamboo products was measured by weighing and analyzing the samples collected.

The biomass and carbon stock in bamboo products for different communities are shown in Table 1. The result reveals that each household has between 196 to 517 kg of carbon dioxide in bamboo products annually. To put it into perspective, a gallon of gasoline has 8.887 kg of carbon dioxide and an average U.S. forest sequesters about 770 kg of carbon dioxide annually. It is impressive to see that a single household can sequester almost the same amount of carbon as an acre of forest. It is important to note that although there is a considerable amount of carbon stock in bamboo products, the maximum longevity of those products is five years because they are not pre-treated. To make bamboo products a long-term carbon sink, the community should apply post-harvest treatment to the bamboo to minimize deterioration and extend the longevity of the products. In general, preservative-treated bamboo can be used to make a diverse range of products such as baskets, containers, brooms, fishing devices, fans, trays, and so on to retain carbon for a long period of time.

Plastic Pollution

In addition to bamboo products being a carbon sink, they are also a solution to plastic pollution. Although plastic utensils and containers are most convenient to many, if a person gets a cup of coffee and lunch daily, that is already so much plastic waste annually from one person. With only nine percent of plastic that is actually recycled, microplastics end up in the ocean, soil, biota, and even the atmosphere.

This waste can easily be avoided if one uses reusable bamboo products instead. Plastic pollution is a global issue that mainly impacts poorer communities. Remote communities that do not have an established waste management system have to shoulder the impact of the plastic pollution crisis. Plastic waste impacts the health of marine life, which consequently impacts the qualities of fisheries, aquaculture, recreational activities, and tourism. This has an economic consequence with about $3,300 to $33,000 loss per ton of marine plastic annually.

Plastic pollution is an issue in underserved, remote communities due to their conventional purchase and disposal habits. In the coastal and remote Indonesian communities, the majority of the household goods are sold in single-use plastic sachets. Additionally, many households prefer processed, packaged foods over fresh foods because it is cheaper and more convenient. The result from the surveys conducted shows that 59% of the respondents think plastic waste should be burned, 3.8% think it should be buried, and 13.5% think it should be put in the ocean.

It is interesting to see that although 74.3% of the respondents know that burning plastic has a negative impact on human health such as coughing and difficulty breathing, more than half of them still burn plastic for disposal. Poor waste management and lack of knowledge of the negative impact plastic has on the environment leads to excess waste and health concerns. Bamboo utensils and packaging may be an option to resolve plastic pollution in those communities. For example, rather than using single-use plastic sachets, bamboo segments and bamboo leaves can be used as options for food storage and transportation. This is already used in different locations such as Thailand. Thin strips of bamboo are woven together to make baskets called shalom and bamboo segments are cleaned and sealed with dried banana leaves to make a dessert called Khao laam.

Recently, there have been studies on how to use bamboo-based biopolymers to produce biodegradable food packaging. Ultimately, remote and underserved communities have to pay the social and economic costs of plastic pollution until they can effectively manage the plastic waste and explore different non-plastic alternatives. Bamboo can be an economically and environmentally sustainable alternative.

Bamboo in Architecture

As mentioned above, bamboo fibers are durable and strong, which also makes them a suitable material for architectural use. Bamboo has high tensile strength, with the external layer bearing up to 400 MPa–similar to the tensile strength of steel. This also makes bamboo an ideal material for earthquake-resistant structures. For example, in 1991, twenty bamboo houses in Costa Rica survived a magnitude 7.5 earthquake without any structural damage.

Reinforcement with Bamboo

Reinforced concrete is commonly used in buildings and bamboo is a more natural, sustainable material compared to the more commonly used steel reinforcement. Steel is costly, takes a lot of energy to manufacture, and is susceptible to corrosion from concrete carbonation and exposure to other concrete elements. An alternative to steel is bamboo because of its tensile strength. Its reinforcement has been tested since 1914 but it was not successful due to the swelling and contracting of raw bamboo and degradation due to fungal and insect infestations. However, recent studies have been conducted to design a potential bamboo-composite reinforcement system that would overcome the challenges raw bamboo has. In one study, bamboo is boiled and dried in an air-circulated oven to make bundled bamboo fibers. After the fibers are dried, they are saturated with epoxy resin and placed in a hot-press compression molding machine. The image above shows the developed bamboo-composite material. Compared to the mean tensile strength of raw material (216-323 MPa), the tensile strength of the composite version is greater (346±25 MPa).  To determine whether the bamboo composite material will still swell and contract like raw bamboo, 10x10x10 mm samples are immersed in water for three months and the weight is measured once a day. The results show that the samples only have a maximum water uptake of about 0.5% of its weight. This study makes it evident that bamboo-composite material is a sustainable option to design low-cost housing for communities where steel is hard to obtain.

An aspect of bamboo flooring that makes it a good alternative to traditional hardwood flooring is that it is much harder, thus more long-lasting and more durable. As mentioned earlier, bamboo is a strong material, and when woven and compressed into strand woven bamboo, the material can withstand loads two to three times greater than the load wood flooring can withhold. Compared to hardwood flooring, bamboo and eucalyptus flooring are more sustainable options due to their rapid growth and durability.

An important proof of bamboo flooring that sets it apart from other flooring materials is that some brands voluntarily test their flooring for off-gassing , and ensure they comply with the Lacey Act as well as with the Toxic Substances Control Act. It is essential for the flooring to have minimal off-gassing because indoor pollutants, particularly volatile organic compounds (VOCs), can make the indoor air quality worse than outdoor air quality.

Sustainable Companies Today

It is delightful to see so many current and emerging sustainable companies that acknowledge their responsibility in minimizing society’s carbon footprint. It is important for companies to not just use the word “sustainability” for public relations and branding but also to make sure to hold their company accountable for being a sustainable brand. This is something that Ambient is doing a good job at currently. Ambient pays attention to how their bamboo is sourced as they comply with the Lacey Act which makes sure their raw materials are legally sourced and cause minimal damage to the environment.

Another exemplary company that can be a model for any sustainable company is Patagonia. Patagonia is an apparel and gear company that uses its resources and platform to combat environmental stresses. What sets Patagonia apart from most sustainable companies is that they voluntarily admit the flaws of their company and take action in making a change. For example, they understand that their fleece products contribute to microfiber pollution so they commissioned a research project to investigate the quantitative impact their products have on the environment. They took further actions such as reaching out to their colleagues and competitors to initiate more discussions on microplastic pollution, discussing with appliances manufacturers to develop more effective filters, and supporting nonprofit organizations to spread awareness about microplastic pollution.

Although bamboo can be used for endless, diverse uses, it is the companies’ responsibility to make the products as green as possible. Figure 3 shows the difference between green and non-green bamboo products. For example, Ambient takes great care into ensuring that they source their bamboo with minimal harm to the ecosystems and making their products last longer. Potential next steps are designing eco-friendly packaging, studying other pre-and post-treatment to extend the life cycle of these products, and supporting and working with low-resource communities. Since antiquity, bamboo is a sustainable material that has diverse uses depending on the species and age. It is a renewable alternative to meat protein, synthetic fabrics, plastic household goods, and packaging, and nonrenewable construction materials. Bamboo is an essential raw material to combat the climate crisis and climate injustice, this makes it not only environmentally sustainable but also socially and economically sustainable.

Interested in the Ambient Scholarship? Plan now for next year’s scholarship . Applications and essays are due by September 1, 2021.

About the Author

Cheryl is our go-to guru for all things sustainable living. She’s on a mission to make your family and our planet thrive! With a heart as big as her passion for sustainability, Cheryl brings you the freshest insights on eco-friendly building products and energy efficiency. 🌱💡

And hey, did you hear about the eco-friendly lightbulb that went to therapy? It finally found its inner “enlightenment”! 😄 Join Cheryl on this green journey, where she’ll tackle your concerns with a smile and a sprinkle of eco-humor!

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Picture your dream getaway: White sandy beaches, crystal blue water, palm trees swaying in the breeze, waiters acting on your every command to bring you the finest foods and drinks available. If you ask any travel agent to send you to this paradise, they will undoubtedly suggest the U.S. Virgin Islands. Now picture your worst nightmare: Destitution seen in no other country, food shortages, no clean drinking water, minimal shelter made out of leftover tin that bakes in the day and freezes at night.

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• 1 Understand
• 2.1 By train
• 2.3 By taxi
• 3 Get around
• 6.1 Supermarkets
• 6.2 Discount and convenience stores
• 6.3 Other stores

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Mäntsälä is a municipality of 21,000 people (2022) in Uusimaa . Mäntsälä is known for its mansions, and sits at the crossroads of many important highways.

Mäntsälä is located about 60 km northeast of Helsinki near the regional border of Päijänne Tavastia . The Mäntsälänjoki River flows through the church village, which joins the Mustijoki River further south, which runs all the way to the Gulf of Finland. Historically, the area has become famous for giving its name to the "Mäntsälä rebellion" ( Mäntsälän kapina in Finnish), a failed coup attempt by the far-right Lapua Movement to overthrow the Finnish government in 1932.

Mäntsälä is at an ideal location in terms of traffic, as many important highways pass through the municipality. The most important road connection is definitely Highway 4 (E75) between Helsinki and Lahti . Others main routes are western Highway 25 from Hyvinkää and eastern Highway 55 from Porvoo .

The platform tracks of the 60.64709 25.30697 1 Mäntsälä railway station , where the Z train between Helsinki and Lahti stops, are located on the left and right sides, and passing trains run from the middle two tracks. Track 1 runs to Helsinki and track 4 to Lahti.

For timetables of coaches, see Matkahuolto .

• Smartphone apps: Valopilkku, 02 Taksi

In the centre of Mäntsälä, services are located within walking distance, but to other parts of the municipality, it is generally better to move by car.

• 60.63234 25.32558 1 Mäntsälä Church ( Mäntsälän kirkko ), Vanha Porvoontie 8 . A red-brick church from 1866. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.6081 25.25018 2 Blacksmith Hill Crafts Museum ( Sepänmäen museo ) ( next to the Hirvihaaran Kartano hotel ). A lively and functional outdoor museum that tells about life in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries in a fun and exciting way. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.70936 25.22778 3 Sälinkää Manor ( Sälinkään kartano ), Kartanontie 20 ( in the Sälinkää village; on the shores of Lake Kilpijärvi ), ☏ +358 400-612-575 , [email protected] . Built at the end of the 19th century, the cosy but festive Sälinkää Manor is now a 130-seat reservation restaurant mostly used for family celebrations. The premises are also used for various meetings and trainings. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63503 25.31458 1 Cine Mänstälä , Meijerin aukio 2 , [email protected] . A cinema. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.62896 25.21113 2 Hirvihaaran Golf , Vanha Soukkiontie 945 , ☏ +358 400-212-331 , [email protected] . ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.65532 25.2916 3 Mäntsälä Disc Golf Park ( Mäntsälän frisbeegolfpuisto ), Sälinkääntie 272 . ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63081 25.31783 4 Mäntsälä Ice Rink ( Mäntsälän jäähalli ), Veteraanitie 4 . ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.59837 25.3792 5 Pellavaranta Beach , Sääksjärventie 310 ( on the shores of Lake Sääksjärvi ). ( updated Mar 2023 )

Supermarkets

• 60.6376 25.31682 1 K-Citymarket Mäntsälä , Sälinkääntie 2 . M–Sa 07:00–22:00, Su 10:00–22:00 . A hypermarket. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63588 25.32166 2 K-Market Säästökulma , Keskuskatu 11 . M–F 07:00–23:00, Sa 08:00–23:00, Su 09:00–23:00 . A supermarket. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63505 25.31698 3 S-Market Mäntsälä , Keskuskatu 1 . M–Sa 06:30–22:00, Su 09:00–22:00 . A supermarket. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.62366 25.29274 4 Lidl Mäntsälä , Töyrynummentie 2 . M–Sa 08:00–21:00, Su 10:00–20:00 . A supermarket. ( updated Mar 2023 )

Discount and convenience stores

• 60.62296 25.28678 5 Tokmanni Mäntsälä , Maisalantie 9 . M–F 08:00–21:00, Su 08:00–19:00, Su 10:00–18:00 . A discount store. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63577 25.31947 6 R-kioski Mäntsälä , Keskuskatu 6 . M–F 06:00–20:00, Sa 07:00–20:00, Su 09:00–20:00 . A convenience store. ( updated Mar 2023 )

Other stores

• 60.64403 25.3245 7 Kirppis Wanha Nalle , Makasiinintie 2 . M–F 11:00–19:00, Sa Su 11:00–16:00 . A flea market. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63609 25.31767 1 Bamboo Palace , Keskuskatu 4 , ☏ +358 41-711-7076 . Tu–F 11:00–21:00, Sa Su 12:00–21:00 . A Chinese restaurant. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63427 25.3157 2 Elvis Pizza Burger , Yhdystie 1 , ☏ +358 19 688-0008 . M–Th 10:00–22:00, F 10:00–23:00, Sa 11:00–23:00, Su 11:00–22:00 . ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63628 25.32001 3 Istanbul Pizza & Kebab , Keskuskatu 8 L 5 , ☏ +358 19 688-0018 . M–Th 10:30–22:00, F 10:30–23:00, Sa 11:00–23:00, Su 11:00–22:00 . ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.6751 25.35253 4 Juustoportti Mäntsälä , Pohjoinen Pikatie 8 ( along the road 140 near the Highway 4; north of the town centre ), ☏ +358 44-793-8050 , [email protected] . M–F 07:00–20:00, Sa Su 09:00–20:00 . A filling station with restaurant, serving a delicious buffet as well as cheese-based delicacies from the à la carte menu. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.6363 25.31574 5 Kalash ( Ravintola Kalash ), Osuustie 1 , ☏ +358 45-234-7709 , +358 44-240-2182 , [email protected] . Tu–Th 10:30–21:00, F 10:30–21:30, Sa 12:00–21:30, Su 12:00–21:00 . A Nepalese restaurant. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63655 25.32283 6 Kotipizza Mäntsälä , Keskuskatu 12 , ☏ +358 19 687-4211 . M–F 10:30–21:00, Sa Su 11:00–21:00 . ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63797 25.32315 7 Papaya Pok Pok , Kivistöntie 4 , ☏ +358 50-509-2102 . M–Th 10:30–18:00, F 10:30–19:00, Sa 12:00–19:00 . A Thai restaurant. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63568 25.32056 8 Phò ( Pho Minh Ravintola ), Keskuskatu 9 , ☏ +358 45-138-1603 . M–F 10:30–19:00, Sa Su 12:00–20:00 . A Vietnamese restaurant. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63582 25.31783 9 Pizza Time Mäntsälä , Keskuskatu 4 , ☏ +358 50-470-2030 . M–Th 10:30–21:00, F 10:30–23:00, Sa 11:00–23:00, Su 11:00–21:00 . ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.60455 25.25435 10 Neste K Tuuliruusu , Lahden moottoritie 1150 ( along the Highway 4 towards Helsinki ). 24 hr daily . A filling station with restaurant and grocery store. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63534 25.31909 1 Bar & Club Kapina ( Club Kapina ), Keskuskatu 5 , ☏ +358 44-972-5711 , [email protected] . Su–Th 15:00–00:00, F Sa 15:00–05:00 . A nightclub. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63583 25.31782 2 Pub Ulrika , Keskuskatu 4 , ☏ +358 50-476-5094 . Tu–Th 18:00–00:00, F Sa 18:00–02:00 . A karaoke bar. ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63544 25.3172 3 Sauhu Bistro & Bar , Keskuskatu 2 , ☏ +358 40-711-0120 . M–Th 15:00–21:00, F 15:00–23:00, Sa 12:00–23:00, Su 15:00–21:00 . A bar restaurant. ( updated Mar 2023 )

• 60.60898 25.25074 1 Hirvihaaran Kartano , Kartanonlenkki 56 , ☏ +358 19 688-8255 , [email protected] . ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63544 25.31473 2 Kartanon Meijeri , Meijerin aukio 1 , ☏ +358 19 688 8255 , [email protected] . ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.6335 25.3246 3 Ruustinnan Kammari , Vuotavantie 1 , ☏ +358 440-100-659 , [email protected] . ( updated Mar 2023 )
• 60.63577 25.32612 1 Mäntsälä Health Center ( Mäntsälän terveysasema ), Kivistöntie 14 . Municipal health centre.  

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