BALI, INDONESIA
SARTHAK DALVI (18SA06)
PREFACE
The Arc is the newest building on campus at the world-renowned Green School in Bali, Indonesia.
It is built by a group of architects working in the bamboo design firm known as IBUKU.
It was done in an collaboration with bamboo construction specialist Jörg Stamm and the British structural
engineering company Atelier One.
Designed as a community wellness space and a gymnasium.
The Structure is mainly built of Bamboo in period of 8 months.
DISTANT VIEW OF THE ARC HALL
HOW WAS THE CONCEPT DERIVED?
The concepted structure for The Arc is totally unprecedented.
The trick was marrying traditional, age-old techniques for building with bamboo, and new technologies.
The inspiration for this building was drawn from a human ribcage.
HOW WAS THE CONCEPT DERIVED?
The concept for The Arc is inspired from an essential function in the human body: the ribcage cloistering our lungs in.
According to Jörg Stamm, who first drew up the concept for the building:‘The Arc operates like the ribs of a mammal’s chest, stabilised
by tensile membranes. Biologically, these highly tensile tendons transfer forces from bone to bone. Similarly in The Arc, bamboo splits
transfer forces from arch to arch.
Akin to how the membranous encasement of skin and muscle remains under tension for the compressed ribcage to hold the lungs, the
arches in the structure too work similarly under compression, held in place by the tensioned anticlastic grid-shells.
STRUCTURAL DETAILS
The Arc is a visually impressive creation: a 14-metre-tall, 23.5-metre-wide and 41-metre-long structure made of
intersecting bamboo arches that span 19 metres.
This building, with a floor area of 760 square metres also having its flooring is made up of recycled tires.
Dendrocalamus asper is the main local bamboo species used in its construction.
STRUCTURAL DETAILS
It is composed of 18 arches, which are made of bundles of bamboo poles, and are ‘curved’ using the technique known in
Indonesia as reb-reb, where repeated spaced incisions allow the bamboo pole to bend.
The arches intersect to form anticlastic grid-shells that are then repeated in a planar manner to form the bamboo
pavilion’s elaborate roof.
STRUCTURAL DETAILS
To shape and curve a bamboo pole in its natural form is challenging because of its cylindrical form.
There are different methods, one of them is known here in Bali as the Reb-reb technique, where we make V-shaped cuts
along the shorter axis of bamboo.
Since the load-bearing capacity of such cut bamboo poles is less in comparison to whole bamboo poles. This can be
taken care of by bundling up at least 3 poles together.
STRUCTURAL DETAILS
The gridshells use shape stiffness to form the roof enclosure and provide buckling resistance to the parabolic arches.
This ‘anticlastic structure’ derives its strength and stability from the curvature in two opposite directions, and allows the
building to have a long, open space without columns.
The two systems together create an unique and highly efficient structure, able to flex under load allowing the structure
to redistribute weight, easing localised forces on the arches.
STRUCTURAL DETAILS
There are 18 groups of bamboos that are joint across each other in a pair of 2
through a Pedestal Bench Foundation.
There are total of 18 pedestal bench foundations with middle 5 of them being
approximately 7 M apart on each horizontal side.
And the remaining 8 being towards each vertical side of the hall in group of 4
approximately 1.5 M and 2.5 M apart.
PLAN
FRONT SECTION
SIDE SECTION
SIDE ELEVATION
THANK
YOU
