SPOTTED: Bamboo from Europe as an environmentally friendly alternative to tropical hardwood
- Design
- Research
Bamboo is durable, grows extremely fast and is long-lasting. Only downside: much bamboo is imported from Asia. Is it possible to set up a sustainable, transparent and local value chain for processing bamboo? The ArtEZ professorship Tactical Design investigates the possibilities of European produced bamboo - from seed to garden furniture. The Dutch newsoutlet EenVandaag interviewed Professor Jeroen van den Eijnde about his research.
From straws to underwear, from garden furniture to toothbrushes, we use it in everything: bamboo. It is a very promising raw material, can absorb a lot of C02 and grows fast. A lot of bamboo is still imported from Asia. But now, with the first large-scale European bamboo plantations, this seems to be coming to an end. Bamboo Europe, an SIA project led by Professor Jeroen van den Eijnde (Tactical Design), investigates whether the European bamboo is of sufficient quality. Van den Eijnde expects to have developed the first outdoor garden furniture by 2024, so that he can fully test whether the quality of the bamboo is good enough.
Read the full article on EenVandaag (Dutch)
How research at ArtEZ is contributing to a sustainable society
The professorship Tactical Design investigates how design can contribute to the transition to a sustainable society. In this professorship there is close cooperation with the industry, universities but also with designers. After all, Van den Eijnde emphasises, "it is these designers - and therefore our students - who are responsible for a large number of decisions in the design process that determine whether their ideas can be made, (re)used and recycled in a sustainable way."
It are designers - and therefore our students - who are responsible for a large number of decisions in the design process that determine whether their ideas can be made, (re)used and recycled in a sustainable way.
For Van den Eijnde, this is also where art academies can make a crucial contribution when it comes to research on sustainability: educating future designers who are aware of the social and ecological impact of resources and materials they need for their products. Van den Eijnde: "It's not for nothing that both the Dutch and European research programmes in the context of sustainability (The Netherlands Circular in 2050, the European Green Deal) focus heavily on circular and sustainable design."
Curious about what else the Tactical Design chair conducts research on?
Visit the website of Tactical Design