I was properly stuck. I wanted to buid a bamboo carport for my brother’s house here in Thailand. And for weeks, I had struggled with various curved roof designs. I had an image in my head — a kind of skirt, draped from a central column and flowing around the edges.
But I couldn’t get it right. I built four or five models. Each one felt forced.
What was I doing? More and more, I realised I didn’t know. What I did know was that I was trying to copy a Pablo Luna bamboo design, whose work I admire deeply. I wanted those deeply curved bamboo forms. But at the same time I wanted to avoid the rup-rup technique — where notches are cut into bamboo to allow it to bend — which I had tried to do but couldn’t master.
Discovering the Hypar Roof Form
Then I received the book Booming Bamboo by Jörg Stamm. Inside was a guide on how to build a hypar — a hyperbolic paraboloid. So I built one, just for the hell of it, following the book’s instructions (you can see more about my playings around with hyperbolic paraboloids here).
A Vision Among the Rubber Trees
But I hadn’t yet connected my paraboloid tinkerings to the carport.
But what I did know was this: I had no idea where I was going with my original carport concepts – and my models were in the trash.
Anyway, I was on the scooter one day, not-knowing what the hell I was doing, here on my winter base of Koh Lanta.
Then – I remember it exactly – I was riding through a grid of rubber trees. And there, in the distance, framed by their long vertical trunks, I saw the build side — the and imagined the carport roof made of a hyperbolic paraboloid.
That soft curve suspended in the geometric rigor of the plantation. It felt like a floating presence, light and mathematical, a poetic contrast to the mechanical world of the car beneath it.
Suddenly, everything aligned. That was it! I would use a hyperbolic paraboloid for the damn roof!
The Challenge of Structural Support
Of course, the next question was how to hold the thing up.
My first attempts — attaching vertical bamboo posts directly to the hypar — cracked. There was too much pressure on the joints and their bolts. I tried multiple solutions, even ran simulations with AI tools (which you can forget about), but nothing worked. Structurally, the system was too loose; too much stress on individual points.
So I stopped again and went back to making furniture — a bamboo chair, a sofa. I needed space.
Bamboo U and the Power of Triangles
Then I signed up to a bamboo construction course in Bali at Bamboo U.
I didn’t go there to solve the carport problem. But walking through the structures at Bamboo U — the kitchen roof, the bamboo dome — I kept noticing the same thing: elegant cross-bracing pyramids supporting vast spans.
And I realised – my designs lacked triangulation, the core principle of structural stability in bamboo construction. One of the master carpenters at Bamboo U said it simply: “Triangles stabilise everything.”
Strength in Simplicity: beautiful examples of triangulation at the office of bamboo design firm Ibuku, and at the Bamboo U kitchen, both in Bali
And suddenly, it all made sense.
By embracing traditional cross-bracing techniques, I could resolve the structural problems I’d been facing.
Intuition, Craft, and the Hands-On Approach
So now I had it – the carport roof shape, and how to hold it up.
Sometimes these things start in funny places – on the back of a scooter, or under a canopy of trees. They start with failure, a willingness to try different things and the patience – and outside input – that let the right idea emerge.