Rising Canes: Alive Modular System

In the framework of the Beijing Design Week, held in the autumn of 2015, the international architectural studio Penda presented its latest development – ‘Rising Canes’ Pavilion - structural system, which is entirely made out of Bamboo and ropes. This Pavilion can be seen as a first step of many to follow, as the structural system is fully modular, ecological and easy to expand in every direction. They chose Bamboo as a main construction material, as it has long traditional roots in China and is a fantastic building material, which currently leads to underrated existence in the architectural process of construction.

For the Pavilion for the Beijing Design Week, no nails or screws were used for the structure and all materials are 100% recyclable. Furthermore, the Bamboo does not get drilled in the process. All joints are tied with ropes, which leaves the Bamboo canes unharmed so they can be reused after the installation. The designers see their project strongly connected to the ‘Cradle to Cradle’ movement, which proposes a holistic economic, industrial and social framework that seeks to create systems which are not only self-sufficient, but also essentially waste-free.

During the Beijing Design Week, visitors will seed plants into some baskets, which get connected to the pavilion. The plants will use the structure to grow along and after some time, nature will be the main design-element and architecture comes second. Last but not least, the Pavilion for the Beijing Design Week was constructed with a ‘do it yourself’ approach by the incredible team of pendas, in order to gain a better insight of the structural behaviour to design larger developments using the same principles.

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Materials provided by Penda Architecture & Design