A really extraordinary example of nature-connected architecture I visited five years ago in northern Thailand. The “Bamboo Cathedral”, a meditation pavilion, built and designed by ChiangMaiLifeArchitects. What immediately impressed me as I came closer was the harmony with which the building design blended into its natural surroundings, as if it had always belonged there.
We found the gate open and had the honour of exchanging a few words with the owner. The lady, aged 85 and a practising Buddhist, was busy with some other ladies preparing for an upcoming meditation event.
The visually dominant building material is bamboo. Bamboo for the structure, for the walls and for the large roof covering. When needed, solid walls are made with adobe clay blocks mixed with bamboo fibres. For exterior plastering, lime and clay are mixed.
During a short exchange of views with Markus Roselieb, the creator of ChiangMaiLifeArchitects, a very special aspect came up for me:
although all the building materials used come from local resources and the local employees have been familiar with these resources for generations, the architecture and building technique of ChiangMaiLifeArchitects is without tradition and equivalent in Thailand.
Here, with a great deal of intuition, solidarity with nature and expertise acquired abroad, something completely new has been created by ChiangMaiLifeArchitects that has in the meantime attracted extraordinary attention worldwide.
My visit there was a profound inspiration for me. Certainly there is room for improvement in terms of ecological standards, and climatic circumstances define important framework conditions.
Anyhow, ChiangMaiLifeArchitects is for me more than “only” bamboo-architecture. The naturalness with which the buildings stand in the landscape without being foreign objects and the simplicity of the answer to a wide range of usage requirements impressed me greatly. No “business as usual”.
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