The story
A bamboo home meant to be adapted, not imposed.
Bali’s housing pressures call for solutions that are affordable without abandoning the island’s material knowledge. Conceived by Hong Kong University students, the Affordable Bamboo AR House explores a compact home built around bamboo: a rapidly renewable resource, a familiar craft tradition, and a structural system suited to the tropical climate. The work is intentionally presented as a prototype rather than a finished building. Design reviews and collaboration with Warmadewa University students were intended to test how the concept could be adjusted to local construction practices, household needs, and nonprofit partners before implementation.
That process matters as much as the form. Instead of treating sustainability as an imported aesthetic, the proposal asks how contemporary design can reinforce an existing building culture while lowering cost and environmental impact. Journeyman International helped connect the academic exploration to a real local context, creating a framework that can be questioned, refined, and ultimately owned by the people who would use and build it.