Bamboo-based build brings safe classroom to Dominican Republic

Jack Elliot and students completed a test build in Cornell's High Voltage Laboratory before erecting the structure in the Dominican Republic. A versatile architectural technology created by a Cornell design professor has been adopted by sustainability-minded students to build bamboo-based hurricaneand earthquake-resistant structures where they're needed most. The first field test of Design and Environmental Analysis (DEA) associate professor Jack Elliott's "Triakonta" structural system stands in the Punta Cana coastal region of the Dominican Republic, as an outdoor classroom for the Puntacana Ecological Foundation. "The structure itself is elegant and has sparked dialogue about sustainable architecture amongst visiting guests, students and even architects," said Jake Kheel, M.S. '02, environmental director of Grupo Puntacana, which operates a resort adjoining the eco-preserve where Cornellians and locals built the bamboo structure in mid-2015. The classroom, Kheel continued, "will showcase new design concepts for construction in the Dominican Republic. Eventually, if this type of bamboo is produced in the Dominican Republic, we could fine-tune the construction methods and bring costs down, making this a viable option for sustainable tourism." That type of bamboo is called Guadua (pronounced gwah-dwah), a fast-growing, large-diameter variety from the Amazon basin that Chris Dennis '13 hoped to cultivate in Haiti. Dennis had transferred from McGill University to Cornell, where the young filmmaker was studying communication as well as international agriculture and rural development.