KuNa Bamboo housing

  • Location:
    Nicaragua & Mexico
  • Type of use:
    Private Housing
  • Year of construction:
    2021–2024
  • Size:
    1100 m²
  • Project sponsor:
    Nicholas Kaspareck
  • Principle of fail addressed :
    Uniform Architecture, Resource Ignorance, Social Ignorance

The Power Of Bamboo

KuNa, in Mayan Yucatec „House of Nature“, is a bamboo social housing program that started In Nicaragua and is now expanding in Mexico. It empowers the communities to de-sign and build their own homes using local, regenerative and high-performing materials, while training farmers and carpenters in bamboo silviculture and construction.

Giving Bamboo The Status of Strong Material

After Nicaragua was struck by two category four hurricanes, Eta and Iota, tens of thou-sands of people were left with nothing. These hurricanes from late 2020 highlighted a broader issue around Nicaragua’s housing crisis, which counts over 1 million people living without adequate shelter and with less than $3/day. In this strenuous context of climate disasters and poverty, the NGO Casa Congo found hope in bamboo and kick-started the KuNa housing project. In the community of El Astillero, many homes on the coast were damaged but Casa Congo's bamboo community centre stood strong and this overcame the perception that bamboo is a weak material for poor people. Local community members are now curious to learn about bamboo instead of being skeptical.

Why SHIFT selected this project

  • Necessity: Tackles post-disaster housing and poverty through local empowerment and sustainable materials.
  • Affordability: Costs 20% less than conventional housing, with options for sweat equity participation.
  • Simplicity & Appropriateness: Uses bamboo-adobe panels and low-tech tools, enabling community self-building.
  • Sufficiency & Efficiency: 70% less embodied carbon, 80% faster build time, and highly resilient to extreme weather.
  • Scalability: Easily deployable across tropical regions with adaptable treatment methods and modular design.
  • Beauty: Vibrantly personalized with murals, the homes reflect local pride and cultural identity.
  • Unique Principle of Success: Combines material circularity, community education, and post-disaster resilience with long-term systemic change.
  • Limitations: Charitable model is not scalable without transitioning to a sustainable social business model.

A Unique System, Made To Be Replicated

What makes KuNa unique is its bamboo-adobe panel system, which is a simple dry fra-ming building solution that is easy to replicate. It only requires basic power tools and no lifting equipment for the prefabrication or installation process. The bamboo can be treated with borax and boric acid or it can be treated in sea water with salt, thus making it potentially very cost effective and accessible to everyone. Each KuNa home is made up of 150 x 6 me-ter Guadua bamboo poles and is designed to use the minimum resource required to achieve the desired performance. Compared to a conventional concrete and block building, KuNa homes reduce: 1. embodied carbon by 70% 2. cost by 20% 3. construction time by 80%

Thanks to the adobe composition, which only uses 5% cement, and natural ventilation systems, the home stays fresh also during tropical heats and does not require mechanical air conditioning. Most of all, KuNa homes have proven to resist hurricanes and earthquakes. 

Stimulating Local Jobs 

Casa Congo formed a team of carpenters composed by local men and women who saw project KuNa as an opportunity to learn about bamboo and build their homes. This team self proclaimed themselves as “Equipo Construyendo Sueños” – the Team Building Dreams. Casa Congo then built a material treatment and prefabrication workshop in El As-tillero, within a 2km radius from the future homes. After building 1 home together, Casa Congo's international team stepped back and the local community delivered the other 20 homes autonomously.


Links & Downloads

Projects: https://architectureindevelopm...
Projects: https://www.thinkbamboo.org/20...
Video: https://vimeo.com/922212300

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