The manual aims to raise awareness among Costa Ricans about the valuable work carried out by the Technical Crafts Mission of Taiwan. It originated from a research project conducted by the Department of Industrial Design at the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, focusing on nonconventional materials like bamboo, rattan, and wicker. The manual addresses basic needs identified in the productive sector and aims to promote the production of bamboo craft products. Divided into two parts, it covers topics such as the intrinsic value of bamboo, species prevalent in Costa Rica, silviculture, furniture construction, and design principles specific to bamboo furniture.
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Part I Bamboo in general
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
As food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Architecture, engineering, crafts . . . . . . . . . 14
Music, medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Paper making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
General Characteristics . . . . . . . . 19
Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Propagation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Physical and mechanical properties . . . . . . 24
Principal Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Phyllostachys aurea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Bambusa vulgaris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Bambusa guadua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Dendrocalamus giganteus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Bamboo in Costa Rica . . . . . . . . 32
National Bamboo Project (Proyecto nacional de bambú) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Technical Crafts Mission of the Republic of Taiwan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The University of Costa Rica . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Research Center on Housing and Construction (Centro de investigaciones en Vivienda y Construcción) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Critical approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Part II Phyllostachys aurea
Silviculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Botanical Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
The Rhizome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
The Culm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Branches, Leaves, and Flowers . . . . . . . . . 55
Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Cultivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
How to Start a Plantation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Cultivation Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Preparation of Material . . . . . . . . 62
Selection of the Bamboo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Transportation or hauling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Removing branches from the Stalk . . . . . . . 64
Drying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Defects in drying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Curing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Industrial Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Traditional Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Preservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Design Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Marking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Final Finishing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Manufacturing Process the Furniture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Types of Cuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Perforations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Broken Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Continuous Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Bending for Continuous Curve . . . . . . . . . . 79
Manuel Retanaʼs Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Complete Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Double Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Halved Joint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Fixed or Double-Mouthed Press . . . . . . . . . 88
Beveled press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Wooden-pin press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Wooden-pin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Joint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Binding loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Ties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Ergonomic Dimensions . . . . . . . 107
Seat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Armchair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Eating Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Sleeping Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Chinese Examples and Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117
Samples from Costa Rican Artisans . . . . . . . . . 123
Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
The purpose of this manual is to inform a greater number of Costa Ricans, of the arduous labor that has so far been in the hands of the Technical Crafts Mission of the Republic of Taiwan.
The idea for the manual came about as the result of a research project undertaken by the Department of Industrial Design of the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica.
In its turn, this project was part of the Program on Nonconventional Materials, specifically in reference to the "Design of Objects" in bamboo, rattan, and wicker.
The results showed promise of great potential for the country, not only in terms of raw material, but for the productive sector as well. Based on information obtained from this sector, certain basic needs came to light which the author addresses in this work.
The general purpose of this manual may be divided in two parts:
1. To make people generally aware of the intrinsic value of bamboo, especially of the species known as Phyllostachys aurea.
2. To promote the production of bamboo craft products.
Based on these two objectives, the work has been divided into two parts. The first covers general topics and the uses of bamboo, as well as the species predominant in Costa Rica. The second deals with silviculture, cutting, and construction of furniture with Pyllostachys aurea. It also includes details on design and ergonomics specific to furniture.
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