Unbelievable! A Woman Builds Her Own Sustainable Paradise Out of Bamboo

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Elora Hardy left her life, and career in the NY fashion scene behind to build something truly one-of-a-kind in Indonesia. Elora and her team have spent the last 5 years revolutionizing bamboo construction with the intent of proving that bamboo is an underused and ideal renewable resource for construction. Hardy uses boron, which occurs naturally in nature, to treat the bamboo in order to prevent destructive insects from being able to ingest the bamboo.

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Hardy was inspired by her father, who "chose bamboo for all of the buildings on campus, because he saw it as a promise," she explains in her TED talk. "It's a promise to the kids. It's one sustainable material that they will not run out of. And when I first saw these structures under construction about six years ago, I just thought, this makes perfect senseWhy hasn't this happened sooner, and what can we do with it next?"

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Bamboo has the compressive force of concrete, the strength-to-weight ratio of steel, and is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. With protective measures like coating the material to prevent decay from insects and moisture, which are its primary weaknesses, the bamboo structures can last a lifetime. The possibilities are limitless.

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