Hacker News Reader

Comment by yhoneycomb | Hacker News Reader

I'm disappointed that all the credit in the article goes to the architechts who designed this. I'm much more impressed with the actual builders who were able to accomplish this. No way something like this would ever be able to be accomplished in America.

View on HN

> No way something like this would ever be able to be accomplished in America.

I find this statement shallow and irritating.

You seem to be extrapolating from your ignorance of construction techniques and attributing them to Americans as a whole.

Bamboo construction is not vernacular in America. But the skills of the artisans who build in bamboo are no less (and no more) than those who build in other locally traditional materials.

And you're wrong to discount the architects. The truth is that bamboo is actually a very cooperative material to work with. It's almost magical after being trained on stick-built structures (2x4s) or masonry. It's light, strong, as flexible as you want it to be, and comes in almost whatever length and width you want. Lashing is easy (if tedious at scale).

So, 100% agreed that the artisans involved in building this structure are skilled. And bamboo engineers are thicker on the ground in SE Asia than in America. The architects and designers also get a huge amount of credit for understanding how to use the material and succeeding, structurally and aesthetically.

Edit: Now if you want to talk about the likelihood of a structure like this passing building code in America, without significant extra expense for structural engineering studies and alterations for fire code, then there is an reasonable conversation to be had. But this has nothing to do with the skill of the builders.

Something like this is accomplished in America all the time. Replace the bamboo with rebar. Then place the forms and pour the concrete.

You might be in awe if you could see the bones of what you think of as ordinary buildings. You might marvel to see a team hanging from lanyards to tie rebar. Or you probably just hurry by wondering when all this construction mess will be over.

Yes, quite likely since I’m sure most builders in America have not worked with bamboo in this manner, as it isn’t native to North America.

Understandable that my comment seemed to point only to bamboo, but I really meant I don't believe most/any of the current builders in America are capable of creating anything that requires this level of unique mastery, bamboo or not. And if they are, there's certainly no evidence of it. All we have is blocky 5-over -1s.

I think this comment says more about your (lack of) familiarity with America than America.

Have you never seen a barn raising by the Amish?[0] Have you never seen an episode of The Woodwright's Shop[1]? There are plenty of woodcraft workers that do not use electricity to build their wood projects. If you put aside the requirement that electricity is not allowed, then there are even more skilled wood craftsmen. Try The New Yankee Workshop[2]

[0]https://duckduckgo.com/?q=amish+barn+rasing&t=h_&iax=images&... [1]https://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/ [2]https://www.newyankee.com/

I'm hoping with a little bit of curiosity on your part, you might be able to eliminate some of your ignorance on this topic.

In other words, you know very little, if not, nothing, about construction. Is that correct?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com