BAMBOO BUILDING

Workshop Building with Bamboo

BamBoeBouwen provides creative workshops at schools and inspiring team building activities for companies in the Netherlands and Belgium. It is an initiative of bamboo artist Antoon Versteegde who started his renowned bamboo artworks in 1983. Since then, he has inspired an ever-growing group of followers worldwide. His way of working has proven to be extremely successful in quickly realizing community art projects, preferably working with the local population.

• Bamboo is a natural material that is used worldwide for the construction of houses, bridges, fences, furniture, etc.

Building Together Works

A bamboo workshop breaks the daily routine: you work with simple, but unusual materials and techniques. Moreover, you work together in a different way, with an astonishing result. Participants can independently experiment with different construction techniques, depending on age and experience. During construction you experience in practice how an idea works or why it doesn't work, what is easy or what is too ambitious. This learning process contributes to spatial insight and better cooperation. You will discover which shapes and constructions are stable and sturdy. How cross connections function or when something goes wrong and falls over.

Science and technology

If the basic objects are then linked together, towers, pyramids or other structures up to ten meters high are created! Topics include: spaces to stay in such as a tent, a cage or a house; striking buildings such as a school, a cathedral, a castle or a pyramid; tall towers such as a church tower, a lighthouse or the Eiffel Tower; vehicles that move such as a bicycle, a car, a boat or a rocket; growth forms from nature such as a flower, a tree or a crystal; recognizable figures such as an animal, a logo or letters that together form a word.

Step-by-step

Depending on the knowledge and skills of the participants, a great diversity of structures is created. By doing so, people can learn from each other and discover step by step what works and what does not work. The technical knowledge and skills you acquire also promote the development of your creative thinking and problem-solving skills. You gradually learn that things can go wrong and you become aware of the possible dangers. In a short time you will gain insight into the technical structure of everyday constructions and buildings. Discover what you can do step by step.

Fantastic experience

BamBoeBouwen works for various clients throughout the country, such as schools, cultural institutions and companies. We are happy to come to your location with all the necessary materials, so that we can get started right away. Both at indoor locations (tent, hall or sports hall) and outside in the wild or on the schoolyard, sports field, park or beach. BamBoeBuilding can be done according to a standard program, but this can be adapted for any situation if desired. Everything is negotiable, the sky is the limit!

Masterfully Simple

Depending on the knowledge and skills of the participants, a great diversity of structures is created. By doing so, people can learn from each other and discover step by step what works and what does not work. The technical knowledge and skills you acquire also promote the development of your creative thinking and problem-solving skills. You gradually learn that things can go wrong and you become aware of the possible dangers. In a short time you will gain insight into the technical structure of everyday constructions and buildings. In the limitation the master shows himself...

Connecting with Each Other

BamBoeBouwen brings all the materials that will be useful during the workshop: bamboo sticks and lots of elastic bands. We use a simple technique that anyone can easily learn in a short time: the art of 'bamboostics' to make connections together. After a short introduction, you can start building a structure on your own, with your team or all of us at the same time. This is possible with your group, class, school, colleagues or entire company, from 5 to 500 people, for beginners and advanced students, children and adults, young and old.

Together you achieve more

You first start individually (two-dimensional shapes: triangle, square, star, flat figures) and then in pairs (three-dimensional shapes: pyramid, cube, football, spatial figures) to finally link the individual objects together to form spatial structures. You gradually learn to deal with the material and with each other because you have to consult again and again. You can discuss constructive problems together to come up with a good solution. This creates new initiatives that give you the opportunity to transcend your own limitations and cross individual boundaries.

It is a Learning Process

You can think of different shapes to translate into a bamboo construction that addresses functionality, use of materials and design. The central concepts are meaning (what is it or what does it represent?), function (what can you do with it or why did you make it?), design (how did you think of and design the shape?), material (can it also be be made from other materials?), technique (can you make this in another way?), place (where, in what kind of environment does it belong?) and time (what is possible in a limited time frame?).

Bamboo as Teacher

There appears to be interest in educational bamboo workshops in creative subjects and technology lessons as well as in nature education and mathematics. By promoting the use of bamboo, attention is also drawn to our living environment. This makes a bamboo workshop a responsible choice where education and the environment go hand in hand. Building with bamboo is a conscious choice for nature!

• Discipline: visual education, design, architecture, technology.

• Subject: CKV, mathematics, physics, research and design.

• Target group: primary, secondary, vocational and scientific education.

Bamboo artist Antoon Versteegde finds his artistic freedom outside established institutions and exhibition spaces, in public locations that are freely accessible to everyone. There he builds large bamboo constructions as temporary installations, from light materials such as bamboo, flags, rope and elastic. His way of working is very suitable for 'community art' projects, where he enjoys collaborating with local artists and volunteers. His construction technique can easily be taught to people who want to participate spontaneously. Interaction is therefore an essential part of the entire process, where the artist organizes an adventure to experience together with others, so that the audience is actually involved in the art project.

In 40 years, Versteegde has realized more than 650 interactive bamboo projects at home and abroad, temporary installations that give citizens confidence in contemporary art. The result of this collaboration appears only to disappear again, but leaves behind a beautiful memory. Although the actual work of art disappears after a few days, weeks or months, the shared experience remains part of the collective memory.

Here you can see some workshops by Versteegde in different countries. You can find an extensive website here: www.versteegde.nl or watch videos on YouTube.

Bamboo + Elastic

In 1983, artist Antoon Versteegde invented the method of building with bamboo sticks and elastic bands, also called “bamboo sticks”. He managed to translate this construction method from his art into workshops, team building and the do-it-yourself packages BAMBOX. Building with bamboo and elastics is now a well-known phenomenon: In classrooms, during team outings, on television in children's programs of farmer seeks woman. Because working with bamboo is creative, mandatory and simple. Antoon's ideas and designs still form the basis for anyone who works with bamboo and elastics.

BAMBOX Construction kits

Bamboo is a natural material that is used worldwide as a construction material for houses, bridges, fences, furniture, etc. We have been renewing and improving our bamboo art, workshops and teaching packages for decades. BAMBOX supplies the only real bamboo building kits for anyone who wants to get started with bamboo and elastic. examined the location, group size of the target group: with the experience of hundreds of bamboo projects, we can give everyone tailor-made advice. We offer a natural and affordable product of good quality. Our sticks and elastics are carefully selected, packaged and shipped by us without the intervention of other parties.