Design Interventions for Stimulating Bamboo Commercialization
Dutch Design meets Bamboo as a Replicable Model

Materials have a considerable impact on the environmental sustainability
of the products in which they are used. Due to the increasing population
and consumption worldwide, more raw materials are consumed than can be
produced globally, making especially resource depletion of both abiotic
and biotic resources an urgent problem.

Due to its good properties and high biomass production, bamboo - a giant
grass - could have the potential to help meet the increasing demand for
raw materials, especially as a substitute for scarce and slow growing
tropical hardwood. Nevertheless, in Western Europe, bamboo, especially in
industrial form, is still a largely unknown material with a small market
share. In this action research it is investigated how the
commercialization of bamboo may be stimulated in consumer durable markets
through the active integration of designers as potential material
champions by means of design workshops. Besides providing insight into the
effectiveness of this method and the potential replicability to deploy
similar design interventions to stimulate the commercialization rate for
other new or lesser known materials as well, this PhD thesis also presents
the prototypes developed during the project "Dutch Design meets Bamboo" as
well as the findings of the 21 participating Dutch designers about the
potential of bamboo as a Western designer's material. Finally, the
environmental sustainability of the various bamboo materials deployed
during the design intervention are assessed based on LCA-methodology and
annual yield predictions revealing if bamboo is actually a more
environmentally sustainable choice than timber.

Contents

PART I: INTRODUCTION

• 1 Introduction
• 2 Intervention Development
• 3 Research Design

PART II: RESULTS

• 4 Product Evaluation; Market Potential and Innovative Character
• 5 Product Evaluation; Environmental Sustainability
• 6 Material Evaluation
• 7 Impact Evaluation
• 8 Process Evaluation & Advice for Improvement

PART III: CONCLUSIONS

• 9 Conclusions & Recommendations

References

Samenvatting

• Appendix A: Respondents
• Appendix B: Obstacles during New Material Commercialization
• Appendix C: Obstacles during Bamboo Commercialization
• Appendix D: Role of Materials in Product Design
• Appendix E: The Image of Bamboo
• Appendix F: Main Elements of Action Research
• Appendix G: Factors of Success and Failure during Product Innovation
• Appendix H: Product Prototype Evaluation Sheets
• Appendix I: Environmental Assessment of Bamboo Materials
• Appendix J: Carbon Sequestration by Bamboo

Epilogue

Publications

Colophon

Curriculum Vitae

http://www.vssd.nl/hlf/m015.htm