Bamboo Architecture: Green School, Bali

Architect Feature: Green School in Bali, Indonesia

Environmentalists and designers John and Cynthia Hardy wanted to motivate communities to live sustainably. Part of that effort was to show people how to build with sustainable materials, namely bamboo. They established the Green School, and its affiliates: the Meranggi Foundation, which develops plantations of bamboo plants through presenting bamboo seedlings to local rice farmers; and PT Bambu, a for-profit design and construction company that promotes the use of bamboo as a primary building material, in an effort to avoid the further depletion of rainforests.

The Green School, a giant laboratory built by PT Bambu, is located on a sustainable campus straddling both sides of the Ayung River in Sibang Kaja, Bali, within a lush jungle with native plants and trees growing alongside sustainable organic gardens. The campus is powered by a number of alternative energy sources, including a bamboo sawdust hot water and cooking system, a hydro-powered vortex generator and solar panels.

Green School Bamboo Ceiling

Campus buildings include classrooms, gym, assembly spaces, faculty housing, offices, cafes and bathrooms. A range of architecturally significant spaces from large multi-storey communal gathering places to much smaller classrooms are a feature of the campus. Local bamboo, grown using sustainable methods, is used in innovative and experimental ways that demonstrate its architectural possibilities. The result is a holistic green community with a strong educational mandate that seeks to inspire students to be more curious, more engaged and more passionate about the environment and the planet.

Green School Bamboo Architecture

In Bali, the Green School has been making waves both for its construction and for its curriculum. TreeHugger has described it before:

The school’s 75 buildings are cooled and powered with renewable energy sources like micro-hydro power, solar power, and bio-diesel. Bamboo, lalang-alang grass (a local grass), and traditional mud walls form the structure of the buildings.
The school was carefully built on 20 acres of land and is on an organic permaculture system, designed to work in perfect cohesion with the natural ecology of the land. A thriving organic garden to be cultivated by the school’s own students will grow fruits and vegetables, herbs, and other crops including chocolate.

Green School Bamboo Architecture

The school is also working towards disconnecting completely from the local electricity grid, generating its own power in several ways, including a simple but ingenious water vortex driven by the local river.

The children learn about conservation at first hand. Green School has its own aviary, which houses many Bali Starlings, a white bird with a striking blue mask. There are believed to be only 20 breeding pairs left in the wild.

Green School Bamboo Architecture

The school, which is growing fast—132 students last year and on the verge of hitting 200 this year—has received numerous accolades, including an Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

Green School-Architect John Hardie

The Green School curriculum combines the academic competitiveness expected of schools and institutions of higher learning with hands-on experiential learning within a Green Studies curriculum and a Creative Arts curriculum.  This means that by holding onto the essential core subjects of English, Mathematics and Science, Green School students will have doors open to them for whichever kinds of further learning and careers that they choose.

Green School Bamboo Architecture

International in its teaching and learning, and in its clientele, our students come from different corners of the world to join a core Balinese community of scholars – representing up to 20% of our enrolment.  They bring with them their learning to date to share with their friends and to contribute to a global awareness and perspective of social issues from their countries of origin.

Green School Bamboo Architecture

Volunteering:

The Green School is always looking for help on campus. From the classrooms, to supervising ECAs and from the library to the Warung. They are looking for volunteers with special skills or just a willing pair of hands.

Green School-Architect John Hardie

The above project ware not the works of Archian Designs Architect Studios but featured as reference.

Read Green School Bali, Indonesia: Aga Khan Award for Architecture

Archian Designs Architect Studios is a Collaboration of Architects, Urban Planners, Interior Designers, Landscape Designers and Engineers in the Philippines. To see the contact information, email to archiandesigns@yahoo.com, or call (034) 700 6233.

Arch Ian Jay Bantilan