The grass that we could soon be using to build our houses and apartments

Fast-growing and environmentally-friendly, bamboo may soon be used in Australian construction, as academics explore the properties of the giant grass.

A lack of research and Australian building standards have held back the sustainable material from being used Down Under despite already being widely utilised overseas, particularly in developing countries, experts say.

University of Queensland PhD candidate Mateo Gutierrez was looking into the fire-resistance properties of bamboo, to help determine where the timber-alternative could be used.

“We’re mostly focused on the fire performance – what happens if you have a load-bearing element when it’s subjected to a fire?” he said. “My research is to find out how it performs in a fire and how it affects the mechanical response.”

Bamboo used in construction would be rarely used in its raw form – the untreated and full cylinders – but transformed into stronger and more versatile materials such as Cross Laminated Timber or Laminated Veneer Lumber, both similar methods of applying glue to wood (but in bamboo’s case, grass) fibres.

This can improve fire resistance, strength and durability, making timber and bamboo more viable as a construction material.

Timber and bamboo form a layer of char when exposed to fire, which can then protect the rest of the wood and prevent total failure of the structure.

It is not as resistant or strong as traditional materials like concrete or steel, but the trade-off may soon become necessary, University of Melbourne Professor Priyan Mendis said.

“Because of sustainability and climate change and all these issues we need to address,” he said. “We are trying to replace cement with other materials now.

“We are running out of resources for conventional materials. We are running out of sand [which is a necessary ingredient in concrete].”

Mr Gutierrez said this meant there was a lot of research going into non-conventional materials.

“The timber industry is facing that a lot right now. We need to know the fire performances for those materials,” he said.

Bamboo had better environmental outcomes than timber, which was in turn better for the environment than concrete or steel, RMIT lecturer Dr Mittul Vahanvati said.

Cement and concrete was responsible for more carbon emissions than cars around the world, and timber had the added benefit of storing, or sequestering, carbon from the atmosphere. Because of bamboo’s rapid growth, it was more efficient than timber, Dr Vahanvati said.

“Bamboo sequesters carbon at a way higher level than any other plant on earth, other than seaweed,” she said.

Dr Vahanvati said it also grew faster than most timber trees, at only three to five years to reach maturity. Because it was a grass, bamboo also did not need replanting because its roots system survives harvesting.

Mr Gutierrez said bamboo would be useful in nearly every construction application, but was not yet popular in Australia because it wasn’t legitimised by national building authorities.

“You would face a few challenges in Australia, because bamboo is not included in construction codes,” he said.