Open Architecture Network

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Beacon of Bamboo: A Project for the Last Shangri-La The most important aspect of our teams research was finding out about the land that is Bhutan and what makes it the "Last Shangri-La." We wanted to not only preserve the untouched and natural land, but also give back to it. In our research we took in many different considerations into our design such as the game of archery, the climate and terrain, and the culture of the Bhutanese. We wanted a design that would be versatile in many locations and be unique to the individual villages while at the same time being a community area to celebrate life, happiness and their love for the sport of archery. Archery acted as a catalyst to bring people to one area and is the key factor in this community space. Along with being made of sustainable materials, and being easily assembled, this structure could be build by the Bhutanese villagers themselves to add a sense of community involvement and pride. This space is meant to bring people in, and continue to be a prominent area for the community to gather. Another point of focus was the economy. While bringing in the community, we could also bring in the Bhutanese arts and traditions of constructing different things such as bows and arrows, baskets, and artwork out of bamboo. This would create a unique ecotourism destination while also bringing in a larger economy and sense of pride for the community. Using bamboo, which is an extremely renewable resource, our concept was to plant a field and build the structure within the field and manipulate the bamboo in ways that would make our design completely sustainable and also give back to the community. We took a traditional community and built off their ideas to implement social, economic, and community development while encouraging a sense of sustainability and environmentally-progressive thinking into our design and their world.