News

Canadian Artist Gregory Colbert  enlisted the help of Simon Velez to realize his vision of a temporary structure built with renewable resources as a home for some of his latest photographs. The Structure, is the largest bamboo structure to date boasting 55000,+ square feet of interior space. The location is in the center of Mexico City also known as the Zocalo, touted as one of the largest plazas in Latin America. The behemoth structure encompasses more than half of the Square and has the Guinness records in a buzz over the size of the display.  Gregory Colbert opened his exhibition in 2002 in Venice and uses renewable materials to house his exhibition Ashes and Snow (see link below) Large prints of his photographs of human beings and their interactions with animals. Simon with help of Marcelo Villegas in their typical fashion built a test structure in Manizales so as to prove to engineers the structure was stable. This is the same process they used to entice the Germans to build the ZERI pavilion in 2002. After some water tests the structures exceeded expectations. The terrible shame about both of these structures is that they have been built as exhibitions and Like the ZERI Pavilion in Germany will be dismantled and unlikely be reused. The sister structure of the ZERI Pavilion still exists in Manizales. Over 30 containers of Guadua were sent from Colombia for this project 9000 + poles 20-38 ft long. Below are some of the renderings and pictures of the test structure.

 http://www.ashesandsnow.org/en/exhibition/nomadic-museum.php

Bamboo Architectural

Symposium!

Simon Velez, Marcelo Villegas,& Hitesh Mehta

March 12, 2006

The FCC/ABS... In Association with Florida Atlantic University - School of Architecture 100 South Andrews Ave Broward Main Library Auditorium Fort Lauderdale.

  Florida Atlantic with the cooperation of the American bamboo society is holding a building course for the students of F.A.U. with Simon Velez and Marcelo Villegas. The course officially begins on the 12th of March. Koolbamboo with the assistance of Guadua Tech were able to provide the 20ft Guadua Bamboo poles and expedite the importation of Marcelo's new washer system. This is the third Guadua Construction course that Koolbamboo has participated in with the masters of bamboo. Pictures of last years course are below.UPDATE!!! The course was a great success and the students and faculty along with the tireless efforts from Simon Velez and Marcelo Villegas completed a very interesting modern bridge on the F.A.U. Campus. I offer great thanks for their hospitality to all of the F.A.U Staff  Aron, Margaret Luke, Dougy, Hitesh, Mate and many more. Excellent Course!!!  

Koolbamboo installed the first of several Guadua Tech structures to be installed at  Fairchild Botanical Garden. The installation by the Guadua Tech team took only 3 hours as all of our structures are prefabricated. The structures location is in the garden adjacent to the Whitman Fruit Pavilion. The  garden commissioned the structures' assembly to coincide with the Chihuly glass exhibition. For more information please go to the Fairchild Botanical garden web site.

 Koolbamboo Construction Workshop
With Simon Velez and Marcelo Villegas February 2006

Thanks to efforts of several people including the esteemed participants and instructors Koolbamboo hosted a bamboo building construction course from February 12th to the 18th. The course featured the skill and expertise of Simon Velez and Marcelo Villegas. The objective of this course was to build a structure out of Guadua Bamboo using the Hardware system of Marcelo Villegas and the architectural design of Simon Velez, The first and only example of their work in the United States.

Click here to see the Article "BUILDING WITH BAMBOO"
published in NEIGHBORS, Sunday, February 5, 2006