Bamboo Project was a series of propositional structures and actions situated in front of the Fine Arts building at Monash University, responding to a plot of bamboo growing onsite in terms of its position in relation to the institution of the university, and its possibility as a regenerative building material. This project was proposed and rejected a number of times, and ultimately failed. On this page are two facets of the project: Temporary Lookout (pictured above), and Propagation #2 (pictured below).

                  Bamboo matures every three to five years. At this time (when white spots appear around the nodes) the plant is ready for harvest. Temporary Lookout was developed as the beginning of a system whereby every three to five years (actual time period to be determined by the maturity of the bamboo) a series of public meetings could be held, acting as a platform for discussion between students and staff at Monash’s Caulfield campus to consider the potential for a spatial and social restructuring using the bamboo. These meetings would hypothetically result in a decision being made collectively regarding the building of a structure out of the, soon to be harvested, bamboo.

                  Once a consensus had been reached, a working bee would take place to harvest the bamboo as a collective. The clumps of bamboo would be thinned by sawing the older culms at their base, leaving more space for new shoots to grow and develop. The off cuts would then go through a process of drying and treating for use in construction. When this was complete, a second working bee will be arranged. Running off the plans of the preceding meetings, the agreed upon structure will be built collectively within the space as a way of enhancing the social functionality of the site.

                  Bamboo possesses many regenerative qualities. The rhizomatic structure of the root system means that through the act of harvesting, new shoots could establish themselves and the plant would regrow. Because of this, a series of public meetings and working bees were proposed to take place every three to five years for as long as the bamboo remains within the space. Propagation #2 was a performative gesture of digging up and propagating the current bamboo plot, by splitting and replanting individual clumps.

                  This was proposed as an ongoing project, occurring for as long as the bamboo remains within the space. In 2010 the bamboo was around two years old, meaning that the primary event would have hypothetically taken place at some point between 2011 and 2013 as it reached maturity for the first time.

* update: in the time since this project was proposed, Monash’s Caulfield campus has undergone significant re-landscaping, which has included the permanent removal of the bamboo.