In 2010, Elora Hardy left her successful fashion career in New York and returned to her childhood home in Bali, which is where she decided to build bamboo houses for a living. Over the course of the last five years, Elora and her team at Ibuku have revolutionized bamboo construction, believing that this plant is both underused and an ideal renewable resource. After treating this material with boron to make it indigestible to insects, the group of talented artists have created several remarkable bamboo homes in Indonesia. “When I first saw these structures at Green School under construction six years ago, I just thought, this makes perfect sense. It is growing all around us. It’s strong. It’s elegant. It’s earthquake-resistant. Why hasn’t this happened sooner, and what can we do with it next?” questioned the bamboo enthusiast during her TED Talk.
Elora was inspired to utilize bamboo by her father John Hardy, who developed the Green School, which features majestic bamboo structures that reflect the sustainable principles the school is based on. With this in mind, Elora went on to create the Green Village, a sustainably built village that redefines what it means to use bamboo as a tool for construction. “The key for me was opening up the possibilities of bamboo, architecture, and design at a high-end level. I wanted to the make the Green Village change the perceptions of bamboo to a cooler material and use it in innovative ways. I love making creative, beautiful things using craftsmanship that can open up and preserve a new skill set,” stated Elora to The Eco Gypsy.
