type: bamboo construction workshop
role: student
project: Jaime Peña Studio
location: Anapoima, Colombia
year: 2023

The cultivarte arches were developed during a three-day workshop by architect Jaime Peña. The project, designed using Rhinoceros and Grasshopper, involved fabricating and assembling ten bamboo arches. The Cultivarte team, Jaime Peña, and the workshop participants constructed the arches.

The process began with constructing a bamboo frame on the ground, which was used as a guide to bend and shape the bamboo strips according to measurements generated in Grasshopper. Each arch was built by layering ten bamboo strips aligned side by side. This process was repeated four times, stacking the layers as shown in the image below.

Clamps were initially placed every 50 centimetres to secure the strips to hold them tightly together. Next, temporary wire bindings were applied, hammered flat, and reinforced with metal zip ties, requiring a specialised tightening and cutting tool. Once secured, the excess ends were trimmed, and the arches were positioned on the concrete base.

Following this, the densification process began. Due to time constraints, only 10% of the structure was densified during the workshop. The image above captures the structure at the end of the event. After the workshop, I created a similar design in Grasshopper for further study.

Project: Jaime Peña Studio.
Project Coordinators: Cultivarte (Eyal and Nathalia);
Construction Team: Jaime Peña, Eyal and Nathalia from Cultivarte, Camila Calegari, Juliana Sáenz, Maria Adelaida, Maria Isabel Arango, Andrés R., Arnaldo Teran, Arthuro, Bernardo, Cesar Medina, Elkin, Hernando Diaz, Julio Sanfate, Lucia Ramirez, Natha Cedeño, Nathalia Martinez, Sergio Malagon, among other students.