If you want a hint of how bamboo architecture is hotting up in the South American regions, this is a firm to watch. I met Uma and Jaime in Bali at BambooU a couple of years back and they struck me as cheerful, cool and keen guys who live and breathe bamboo. Their work has expanded and shifted gears since then and they are booming as bamboo should!

Check out their new website from the link at the end of the article.

 Questions:

1. Tell us about the company, how it was started and why it exists.

Arquitectura Mixta is a family, a community in constant expansion. Its origin comes from a proposal on how to inhabit this planet, how to understand and learn from this huge network of information that is mother earth. That’s how this family is born, exists because the universe created it, he was the one that began it, exists because it already existed, has always existed and it will keep existing, now we expand the information through the architecture, through the use of the fruits mother earth gives us.  They call it Bio Construction because it’s alive, like all the materials we use, filled with spirits of light.

2. Which regions do you work in and Why Bamboo?

At the moment we are working in North, Central and South America. Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua.

The bamboo is an amazing plant filled with the power of light, it has a very important mission in this planet, she regulates the waters in the tropical systems where is endemic, is part of a cyclic net connected to the moon and the ocean, the establish an harmonious relationship with the flows of this planet, a social plant that lives and works as community, is a spirit that understands very well the concept of universal web, a weaver and a linker, strong and beautiful, it also loves to be transformed into architecture and manifest it´s energy, structural, organic, fluid, sensual or conservative, she adapts to all geometries and technics that understand it and manage her with respect.

3. What species of bamboo do you use and how was it treated?

We mainly work with Guadua Agustifolia Khunt in both Colombia and Mexico, now in Mexico we are starting to work with other species like Philostaquis Aurea, Dendrocalamus Strcitus and Otate, in Nicaragua we have used Dendrocalamus Asper and Gigantocloa Apus, and in Brasil Guadua Angustifolia, Dendrocalamus Asper and Bambu Moso. In both Nicaragua and Mozambique, where we also worked, we used immersion in salt water for Colombia, Brasil and Mexico we do immersion in salts of boric acid and borax salt.

4. Who constructs the buildings and if you can elaborate on the construction process especially the artisans and special skills required, if any?

Our family through time, has created it´s own technic and architectonic identity, this has taken us to have a formative vision and transfer the knowledge through the generations, this is how the masters and coordinators already experts in the technique, have people working side by side, learning and understanding everyday how to use it, we are the ones that build our projects and support our friends and colleagues to build their dreams with bamboo, with bio construction, our technique develops through the weaves made by our own artisans, our own people.

5. Anything special or challenging that you want to share about your buildings in its design, construction process and maintenance?

We develop our designs using the principles of universal and sacred geometry, and is the nature who guides us in this process, the flower of life, the golden ratio, spheres, ellipses, arches, waves, frequencies.  To gain the acceptance and trust of the clients or people interested in bio construction was a big challenge and learning process, besides the understanding of the technique and it’s scientific basis, a very nourishing challenge, the construction process has been growing and evolving with creativity. The making of each work, also all the provisional structures that this work requires to be built with both beauty and quality.

In maintenance we can have a variety of scenarios depending on the project and client, some more exposed than others, always letting the client know how to handle the exposure of the bamboo in relationship to it’s durability.

 6. What are the main challenges in bamboo for the practice and how are you approaching these challenges?

 In working with bamboo the biggest challenge is to know the whole process of growth from the beginning as a plant, it presents an infinity of qualities and kindness, in every part of our lives, it reaches to collective and infinite developments.

To understand and take the right path in the practice as human beings  is a very interesting and wide challenge. To exchange experiences, create spaces for research and applied knowledge, creating connections with the academies and schools of architecture, engineering and design, basically taking the model of bamboo and be open to collective and supportive creative process of entrepreneurship and research.

 7. What is your favourite all time bamboo building/designer and why? 

We are all time fans of our ancestors and their marvellous construction with bamboo, from the indigenous tribes from inland and their bridges that inspired Jorg Stamm to our ancestral peasant cultures with their bahareque bamboo technique and houses that still stand on present time with over 150 years. We admire the respect and methodology of their work with bamboo, with total understanding of its natural process and very ancient works without and the right management of the lunar cycles, also our indigenous ancestors with their sacred construction, temples and houses of thought.

8. What makes Arquitectura Mixta different and unique?

Arquitectura Mixta is unique because is a universal mission. Its work is based in the collective and sharing, we are in constant expansion and evolution, our guide is the universal mathematic and geometry, our teacher is the universe and his magic our source of inspiration.

INSTAGRAM @arquitecturamixta

FB @arquitecturamixta

WEB www.arquitecturamixta.com