Elora Hardy was part of the first wave of children growing up in Ubud expatriates in the 1980s His creative parent would decrease the little girl off with friendly artisans in various villages where she learned carving, painting and batik all sorts of things, but mostly fairy princesses and dragons. In 1994, at the age of 14, Elora went to a boarding school for the arts in California and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Tufts University in 2004. The move to Manhattan in 2005, the young woman talked his way into a job working for a designer Donna Karan in the weird and wonderful world of fashion. After five years of painting on fabric in New York she returned to Bali in 2010 to join a team of talented craftsmen and designers from home to PT Bamboo Pure Green School who built. Elora also has its own design brand, Ibuku ( www.ibuku.com ).
When did you first come to Indonesia and why?
I grew up in Bali because my parents came here for a trip around the word and stayed. It was 1975 and at the beginning they thought Bali was too crowded, but of course they fell in love with it. When my mother was in Nepal, she saw a trekking woman with her toddler and realized she could have children and still have fun, so they got me.
How did you get interested in the bamboo and its uses?
When I saw my father and the team were building the green school I thought, bamboo is something we aren 't the risk of lacking, and what challenge it would be cool to make great buildings on the grass.
I Ibuku founded in 2010 as an international brand to spread the idea to design outside the box, the design for the future and using natural materials and sustainable systems that customers can feel good. We're not perfect, but we are pushing the boundaries to be conscientious about materials and collaborate and integrate new eco-innovations as they become available.
Why bamboo is an appropriate building material?
Bamboo is plentiful, beautiful and as strong as steel by weight. It is lightweight and easy to handle, versatile as your imagination and the work is as good as your skills. It is also flexible. Bamboo dance in earthquakes, while other rigid structures crack. Although a bamboo house is flammable as a wooden house, it has fewer walls so it is easy to escape!
Why build with bamboo environmentally friendly?
If you had to invent the ultimate durable wood, you make sure it could grow wild throughout much of the world without having to be watered, sprayed or cultivated by people; that every Pole could become strong as quickly as possible during the rainy season; do enough light for two men to carry; be sure to send a bouquet of new shoots every year for decades for you to not have to plant more and the person who is the earth, it was increasingly on would not be cut because it could continue to sell the crop each year for a relatively steady income period. Finally, make the wood grow in a culture where there were skilled craftsmen living light on the land and working with low-impact tools.
Are there disadvantages to working with bamboo?
Sometimes I dream of plywood and drywall! It would be so much easier to make walls and floors with large flat surfaces, but I can not get comfortable with the thought of the forest being cut down, aspirated and distributed over the entire surface of the world, so we take on the challenge of finding a better way!
In fact, I counted about six new Bamboo Restaurant Monkey Forest Road last week, it seems that some people take the bamboo building again! Now that we have a natural treatment to permanently protect against insects, bamboo makes much more sense for the long-term structures. One of my employees just rebuilt its "boot daja" in his homestead in a bamboo super cool vintage style. Balinese houses were traditionally built of wood and bamboo, and the towers of cremation and ogoh ogoh are often still.
Is it expensive to build a bamboo house?
The equipment costs less than a conventional structure, but the time required for their design and know-how for a bamboo house is much more, so it compensates. Customers who looked we wanted more innovative, luxurious structures. But it is also becoming more affordable to build simple structures, so we hope to inspire people to use it that way and change bamboo reputation while we're there.
What bamboo project you currently involved in?
Our team is preparing to build new classrooms, desks and tables to Green School. I just built a mushroom fairy house with class 2b year. We also are completing two private homes and begin developing the concept of a retreat center. In Sayan, we are working on a new restaurant at Bambu Indah and a replica of a traditional Sumbanese House.
What are the most enjoyable aspects of your work?
I like to see the bones of the house up, and the roof and the walls begin to fill. That's when I spend the most time on site, planning the movement of parts, the shapes of doors, curved walls in a way that is not possible to appear completely in advance. I like turning a structure in a comfortable house, down to the towels and kettles and flowers if the owners let me!
Where can I find more information about bamboo construction?
Come visit us! Email us in advance at info@greenvillagebali.com to arrange a tour of Green Village. In some houses, you can even spend the night! Visit our website www.greenvillagebali.com , or keep Green Village Bali 'on to see the work in progress.