The Green School Showcases Bamboo Construction in Indonesia

<a href="http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/05/21/son-builds-mom-a-bamboo-house-with-a-moon-view-in-costa-rica/" target="_blank">Bamboo</a> is an incredibly versatile material, which is why environmentalists and designers John and Cynthia Hardy wanted to showcase it in their gorgeous <a href="http://www.greenschool.org/index.html" target="_blank">Green School</a> in Indonesia. The remarkable campus of buildings is constructed completely from sustainably-harvested bamboo and is powered by renewable energy systems. Located in Bali, The Green School is as much a school as it is a holistic community, and it has recently been shortlisted for the <a href="http://www.akdn.org/akaa/default.asp" target="_blank">Aga Khan Awards for Architecture</a> for its sustainable merits.

The Green School was started as a way to promote sustainable education and green building. It's a beautiful example of what can be accomplished using local sustainably-grown bamboo.

The Green School offers a curriculum for preschoolers all the way up to high school with a strong focus on social sustainability, organic gardening, and environmental stewardship.

The Green School includes classrooms, a gym, assembly spaces, faculty housing, offices, cafes and bathrooms. Here is one of the open-air classrooms with a large roof made of structural bamboo trusses covered in dried grass.

PT Bambu, which was started at the same time as The Green School, is responsible for much of the campus. PT Bambu specializes in bamboo construction and promotes the use of bamboo as a primary building material, in an effort to avoid the further depletion of rainforest.

All of the classrooms are open-air and feature ceiling fans that facilitate natural ventilation. The open-air nature of the facilities also cuts down on the use of lighting during the day, but lights have been installed for use at night.

The heart of the school is the main activities building, which implements sacred geometry with two spirals running opposite each other, but never touching.

The golden mean spiral was used in the design of sacred buildings in ancient architecture to produce positive energy. It is thought to facilitate connectivity with spiritual realms through prayer.

Curriculum for the school focuses on a hands-on approach, where students learn by doing. Studies include social sustainability, organic gardening, environmental stewardship, the creative arts, and general education like math, science, reading, etc.

Bamboo is used extensively throughout the facility -- not only in the structure, but also for tables, chairs, wall coverings, floors and even the chalkboards.

The roof structures are architectural delights composed of bamboo trusses and cross members. Skylights punctuate the roof line in some of the buildings to let natural light filter down below.

Here one of the bathrooms in the entrance building shows that bamboo is used for practically everything except the toilet.

The school features a working organic chocolate factory, large sports fields, a gymnasium, high ropes courses and a network of bicycle paths. Various renewable energy systems, like a bamboo sawdust burner, provide energy and hot water for the campus.

The large gymnasium structure is comprised of five bamboo arches that support a double-tier alang-alang thatched grass roof.