Design Thinking for Small Bamboo hut Development

Abstract

This article is part of the research “Bamboo hut design and construction using Router and Positive Fitting Joint”. The purpose is to study process and design development for Bamboo hut. This research conduct the “Design Thinking” process in all step and apply the “Action Research” method on design development and onsite survey collaborated with local technicians in order to discover the prototype of original bamboo hut on fundamental construction using Router and Positive Fitting Joint which is one of Vernacular or Traditional Bamboo Joint techniques.

This is Experimental Research by dividing the tools into 2 parts. (1) Design tools which use perspective in Sketch up program together with the mass study. (2) Research tools which implement the participant observation and guided interviewing for data record in design development duration collaborated with native technicians for three times. The bamboo hut size of final design prior to build is 1.20X1.80X2.85 meters. This can be concluded as the following issues:

1) “Conceptual Design” caused by the use of two-way panel frame structure with the stable triangular structure of bamboo swings that local technicians build. The Skeleton Frame Structure is chosen because it is proper structure to be suitable for the size of bamboo hut and found in small-size bamboo architecture in term of Column and Beam.

2) “Mass Development” caused by the literature review. It is found that small-size bamboo architecture in Southeast Asia has basic structure from triangle. The structural figure is symmetrical and its building is made from duplicate structure frame. There are 2 types of such duplication consisting of horizontal duplication and circle-radius duplication that have following concerns in design. 1) The angle which bamboo tilted apart from each other 2) Proportion of structural parts that the researcher has developed the bamboo hut to have the angle of the primary column and secondary column tilted 30 degrees apart and the proportion of structural parts between the primary column height is “h” and the secondary column height is “2 / 3h”

Those two issues have factors that affect the figure design and development process as follows. 1) The distance for transporting and loading bamboo hut by pickup truck. 2) The wind velocity which strike on the figure of bamboo hut. 3) The variety of bamboo cutting face sizes that create the technique for inserting a smaller diameter bamboo pole into a larger one, also known as Positive Fitting joint. This affects the angle between the bamboo poles which is one of the characteristics of joints that have Eccentricities of Load Transfer due to the inability to design the connection on multiple bamboo poles in one point.