Wondergrass Workshop Commencement

Wondergrass has started it's monthly 2 day workshop starting with Vaibhav Kaley, CEO of Wondergrass, as the first speaker to introduce bamboo to the artisans. Part of a Wondergrass initiative, these workshops will host guest speakers as part of a bamboo resource center for the expansion of building with bamboo in Wondergrass and India. Starting with the basics, artisans are introduced to a formal setting for proper techniques, names of tools in several languages, as well as improving drawing skills so that more craftsmans can take designs into their own hands. This is an example of self empowerment and forward linkages that Wondergrass is developing for the implementation of bamboo in India. Introducing bamboo, and then pushing for an entrepreneurship attitude for others, further extending the placement of bamboo as a building material in India. This will also give us more confidence in the final outcome of our Guesthouse that is getting completed. Since bamboo is such an adaptive materials the capabilities are beyond a novices understanding. That is why creating such workshop and educative workshops is vital in showing the varied expressions that bamboo can make. Since Wondergrass is expanding in several different areas for using bamboo, housing, auditorium, tensile structures etc. the constant learning of bamboo's properties is done by all of us, not only the artisans. We continually redesign the way modern construction methods are used, so as to adapt to the use of bamboo. For example, the typical brick and cement house used for so many rural Indian homes, has become costly, environmentally wasteful with resources, and unsafe in earthquakes.Bamboo can solve all of these problems because of it's cost effectiveness, its a renewable resource, as well as it tensile strength matching that of steel to combat earthquakes. All of these facts are going to be covered in the coming months with our workshop's that will host guest lectures. If you are interested and have experience working with bamboo, please let us know, and we would like you to share your knowledge.

In our guest house facade we have given Danesh one of our artisans the task of building shutters for the ground story. They came out very well, and reflect the care taken into making them. They will be used near the ground entry, as well being operable, they will also provide an attractive light pattern on the interior during the sunset. The lightness and aestetic qualities of bamboo are wonderful to design with. It's quite a compliment to nature and an evolultion of building to use such materials like bamboo. Not only bamboo, but we have used mud plastering to create great wall facades that will absorb the heat in the day making a cool place to be. We have a three coat process in which we apply a liberal coat of water soaked mud, and let that dry. After that we apply a second coat on top of that to fill in cracking and displacment. As a finishing coat, we apply a thin layer of cow manuer. This acts as a binder and give the wall a strong skin to adhere to. We like this method for it's qualities of environmentally safe, user friendly, and affordable, however we would like to develop a material that is thinner and lasts longer with more use. Further research into that is needed.