Lucas Loo’s sustainable startup, Sead Industries, is focused on combating climate change while empowering ‘Orang Asli’ communities by transforming bamboo into the construction material of the future
Bamboo, a plant found deep in secondary forests, has immense potential to revolutionise future construction methods. While technically a type of grass, bamboo has been used for centuries to build houses because of its strength. Several properties make bamboo a highly sustainable material: it grows abundantly and helps absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) while releasing oxygen at a higher rate than traditional forests.
Like many others, Lucas Loo, architect, founder and executive director of Sead Industries, was initially sceptical about bamboo’s reputation as a building material. Loo believed it was primarily a low-cost timber alternative that didn’t last long and deteriorated quickly. However, his perspective changed once he researched bamboo and discovered its many uses.
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“At some point, I decided to try bamboo and was impressed by its versatility. It is one of the most sustainable construction materials available today. It has exceptional tensile strength, which surpasses that of certain steel, and it can withstand extreme weather conditions,” he says.
Today, more architects recognise its aesthetic and practical benefits as a building material. Many have even gained fame from incorporating it into their designs.
Peninsular Malaysia alone has around 400,000 hectares of naturally grown bamboo in forests. A mature clump of bamboo stands between 50 and 100 feet tall and can grow as much as a metre in a day. “There’s nothing else like bamboo out there. We can harvest no structural materials in the forest to increase its carbon sequestration rate. The more you work with it, the more you understand its amazing strengths and weaknesses,” says Loo.
