- Campus
- 24/04/2025
BE students win 1,000 euros with bamboo structure
Anyone walking past the Koeveld this week will see seven bamboo pavilions on display. The extraordinary structures were built on Wednesday by some 35 Built Environment (BE) students as part of the Bamboo Challenge. The creators of the best pavilion went home with one thousand euros in prize money.
Each team was given the same assignment: build a bamboo pavilion in one day. At 9 AM, seven teams get to work on their own designs. Despite the rain and clouds, everyone works hard all day long.
The competition is an initiative by the companies Anteagroup and CB5, in collaboration with Anarchi, the study association for architecture and urbanism. “Our company was looking for a way to create more visibility among students through a competition,” explains Hanne de Jong, an advisor at CB5. “Something that would challenge students in the field of architecture and design. But also something with a strong focus on sustainability, because that’s an important pillar of our company.” And that is why bamboo was chosen as the star player: a strong, versatile, and above all, sustainable material.
New experience
The creators of the winning pavilion get to take home a thousand euros in prize money. The cash prize is, of course, a great incentive, but the experience itself is also very valuable, says Finn Snijders, a board member at Anarchi. “We do get to build in some of our courses, but never on this scale. The biggest it gets is 1:10, which still fits on your table,” he says. “In this challenge, students get to build their own designs on a 1:1 scale, which is a really fun experience.”
Building with bamboo is also a welcome challenge for students, as it is still a relatively uncommon material in the Netherlands. “Our courses focus mainly on the Dutch market, where concrete, bricks, steel and wood are the most used materials,” says Kalina Petkova, also a board member at Anarchi. “By introducing a new building material, participants are challenged to adapt and work with something they aren’t yet familiar with. The main goal is to create awareness of other materials which can be used. This is especially interesting for students who might want to work abroad after their studies, where the building materials may be different.”
Bamboo as a building material
Bamboo is gaining in popularity in the construction world. It requires little specific care and grows incredibly fast, up to a meter a day. This makes it more sustainable and a lot cheaper than most other building materials. In addition, it is both flexible and strong. Its tensile strength is even greater than that of steel.
At present, bamboo is still rarely used in the Netherlands. Architect Olav Bruin, who serves as a jury member for the competition and specializes in bamboo structures, explains why this is not all that surprising. “It might be a very sustainable material, but it does have to be imported all the way from Asia. So that kind of defeats the purpose. It’s better to work with materials that are naturally available in a country. Here in the Netherlands, wood would be a more appropriate choice,” he says. “But in some situations, bamboo can still offer a great solution here. Think of structures that need to be lightweight and easy to assemble and disassemble, like patios or shelters for festivals. Bamboo is an ideal material for that.”
Winning team
After nearly seven hours of construction, the pavilions are evaluated by a jury consisting of representatives from Anteagroup, CB5, the Department of the Built Environment and architect Bruin. “Last year, when we organized the Bamboo Challenge for the first time, we focused mainly on the quality of the construction. This year, we added an aesthetic component – so now, we also factor in how appealing or interesting the final product looks,” says de Jong.
Team four, called the Bamboozlers, emerged as the big winner of the Bamboo Challenge. The team members named their pavilion “the Wave” because of the wave-like structure they created using the bamboo poles. “We left our pavilion open on four sides to encourage social interaction. That way, it invites passersby from all directions to come in,” says one of the team members during their presentation.
Taking it home
The pavilions will remain on display on the Koeveld until Friday afternoon, after which they will be disassembled. “The participants may take the materials home to rebuild their design – or something else – somewhere else, in their own backyard for example,” says Snijders. Anarchi will store the leftover bamboo. “We’ll save it for the next Bamboo Challenge. It’s the sustainable thing to do.”
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