Bamboo

Bamboo is a favoured plant among architects and designers because of its incredible strength and durability. One Colombian architect 1 to it as nature's steel, but in many respects it is even better than steel: it is lighter and more flexible, and these 2 make it the ideal building material in areas that suffer earthquakes and severe weather patterns. Construction workers in places such as Hong Kong rely on bamboo scaffolding whatever the 3 of the tower block they may be working on: over a billion people around the world live in a home that is made of bamboo; and China 4 the plant for thousands of years. The only drawback to this remarkable product is the cost of transporting it. So for those 5 live in cooler regions of the world, the enormous advantages of this natural building material are less accessible.