Neglected to add that the bigger diameter stuff (if cold-hardy) is the
most useful spectrum of bamboo society---unless you are weaving hurdles,
wall-panels and the like.
http://www.bamboogiant.com/html/bamboo_uses.html (you got obnoxious
neighbors and a zoning restriction of five feet on fences---make them
both invisible with a bamboo fence, just be sure to put in a rhizome
barfier first.)
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/bamboo.html (ATTRA great source of
information on bamboo and any other farm-related topic, including the
essential Temperate Bamboo Quarterly listed below from "the farm", one
of earliest agrosurvival groups and still highly useful.)
http://www.mrbamboo.com.au/Ideas_and_Places/bali/bamboo_chair_bali/bamboo_chair_bali.html
(popular Bali bamboo chair---looks a bit too crude for me---could be
vastly improved by casting iron fasteners, and secure the advantage of
KD (knockdown) compact shipping and consumer assembly of the kit---you
could do the same with willow which is easier to grow in northern climates.)
As proof of its viability, the Costa Rican Government has introduced an
educational construction program, building 6,000 bamboo houses every
year. Constructed of Guadua bamboo, from plantations established only
eight years ago, they are designed to eliminate the often high
death-toll from Costa Rica's frequent earthquakes. Unlike Bali's elegant
tropical designs, Costa Rica's innovative structures are
indistinguishable from conventional houses, with exterior and interior
rendering supported by the superbly strong and flexible bamboo frames,
giving superior insulation qualities.
Whilst simple temporary structures are easily built, permanent,
strongly-built houses that comply with Council standards can be
constructed if the intending builder takes the time to learn some of the
necessary basic skills and procedures required. As an example, good
design involves simple bracing triangulation and load-direction
placement of members, together with an adequate understanding of the
different joining systems available for both lightly and heavily laden
columns and beams. Columns, beams and truss members need not be limited
to single bamboo culms (ie, timbers), as massively strong members can be
constructed using multiple culms pinned and lashed together.
http://www.primitiveways.com/bamboo_rice_cooker.html (how to boil your
rice in a section of bamboo---wrap the rice in a banana leaf and stuff
it in the bamboo section, which in turn is simply thrust in a wood or
charcoal fire.)
http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/wallace/S027.htm (I will attest to the
flavor of Durian, but though I like honey, never had such a passion for
it that I would follow the Dyak practice of climbing an 80-foot tree
trunk to get it. Buth the Dyak use of bamboo throughout their
stilt-houses is splendid in a tropical or semi-tropical climate where
ventilation must come both from the floor and wall-openings.)
https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no32842.htm (pretty pricey book on my old
stamping grounds. the Chin hills of Assam. wotj 400 inches of rain per
year and where the snap, crackle and pop of bamboo growing one to two
feet per night will keep you awake in your mosquito net hammock.)
http://www.nativeflutes.com/songbird.html (guy comes around to the
Roanoke Farmers Market Square making and selling bamboo flutes. You
have to be a flautist to use them, so the market is a bit thin, but
maybe he lives a bit more modestly than the rest of us.)
http://www.hennesseyingalls.com/architecture/9588156068.htm (no
structure has the feel-good aura of an open, airy, well-lit bamboo and
thatch structure like the Cabane Choucoune adjacent to the Hotel
Choucoune in Petionville, Haiti, where I kept a suite for several years
as alternate residence to a house in Duqueni whose frigid pool backed up
to a mountain spring, its water running constantly through the house
water supply lines and thence into the pool.
Warning, thatch roofs are flammable as hell, and loved by rats---that's
ok rats are loved by King Snakes, keep a pair in your roof and forget
about any rats. Don't know whether the Hotel Choucoune and Cabane
Choucoune in Petionville still exist. I know the old wooden Olafsson
still does in Port au Prince---used to be the favorite hangout of chess
addicts and foreign journalists. Intentionally run down like a pair of
well-worn shoes. Makes occupants feel at home like going back to the old
family farmhouse on weekends.
http://www.buildersbooksource.com/cgi-bin/booksite/20169.html (think
this is duplicated somewhere here, but couldn't risk leaving it
out---Villegas New Bamboo---a fine book)
http://www.chelseagreen.com/2000/items/433 (and Chelsea Green is an
always-good book source on all things buildig)