A Lowly Grass Moves Up(2011/07/19)
   The headquarters of the John Hardy jewelry house here surprises with carefully crafted, contemporary uses of bamboo: as furniture, structural detail and the basis for an unusual video wall in the reception area.he once-lowly grass, commonly found in Asia, is moving up in the world of construction materials. "We are beginning the new age of bamboo. It is getting there and it has a lot of uses," says Damien Dernoncourt, chief executive at John Hardy.For years, it has supported a planting project in Bali and on Nusa Penida island in Indonesia; this year alone it plans to plant about 95,000 bamboos, with an eye toward offsetting the carbon output from its manufacturing, advertising, travel and transportation.
   It costs about 28,170 Indonesian rupiah, or about $3, to plant one bamboo and maintain it for five years, when the grass can be harvested.For most of the bamboo it used in the Hong Kong office, the company paid market prices — ranging from 6,000 to 50,0000 rupiahs per six-meter pole, depending on quality.
   "We spent a bit more money to use bamboo," says Mr. Dernoncourt, but the result was striking and reflected the caliber of the high-end lifestyle brand. The office is outfitted with made-in-Indonesia desks that have bamboo veneers. But Mr. Dernoncourt estimates that he could have paid about a fifth of the cost by getting plywood or particle board desks made in China for about 200 Hong Kong dollars, or $25, each.
   The new bamboo finishes on the market are expensive. At Equal Limited, a Hong Kong veneer supplier, a typical 2.4-meter by 1.2-meter panel of light-colored Chinese smoked bamboo veneer retails for 840 dollars. In contrast, common beechwood would be about 200 dollars, while dark African wenge wood is about 1,300 dollars.
   Shigeru Ban, the distinguished Japanese architect known for his use of unusual materials, became one of the first to experiment with contemporary bamboo when he did a villa for the Commune by the Great Wall compound in Beijing. The Furniture House project, presented at the 2002 Venice Biennale, included custom-made bamboo veneers, made from treating and laminating slats.
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