Cool and pleasant

Simple to use, easy to maintain

Chiangmai Life Archi­tects’ Bamboo Sports Hall at Panyaden Inter­na­tional School combines modern organic design, 21st century engi­nee­ring and a natural mate­rial: bamboo.

Situated in the cultural heart of nort­hern Thai­land, Panyaden Inter­na­tional School in Chiang Mai is a green school built from earth and bamboo and is peacefully located among rice fields just 15 minutes’ drive from the city centre.

Panyaden Inter­na­tional School was founded to deliver a holi­stic educa­tion based on Buddhist prin­ci­ples inte­grated with a modern curri­culum. Students who graduate here “will not only have inter­na­tio­nally compa­tible skills in reading, writing, mathe­ma­tics and science but also prac­tical life skills such as how to grow vege­ta­bles and eat healt­hily, how to over­come diffi­cul­ties and social respon­si­bi­lity.” The campus design, by its layout and non-reli­ance on unneces­sary resources or tech­no­lo­gies, makes the school simple to use and easy to main­tain. 

Panyaden Inter­na­tional School and its new Bamboo Sports Hal are exem­plary examples for eco-friendly archi­tec­ture and as such receive both local as well as inter­na­tional reco­gni­tion. The buil­dings that make up the school fall into two cate­go­ries. The class­rooms and offices were built with load bearing walls made of rammed earth which carry bamboo roofs, clad­ding as well as struc­tural elements. Due to the high thermal mass of rammed earth walls, tempe­ra­ture varia­tions are mode­rated, thus elimi­na­ting the need for air condi­tio­ning. In addi­tion, rammed earth walls keep humi­dity at specific levels which are ideal for asthma suffe­rers. The several open pavi­lions (which are called sala in Thai) that house the assembly hall, the Buddhist chapel, the school canteen, and a covered play area next to the swim­ming pool, are comple­tely made out of bamboo, also using bamboo set on large boulders of natural stone for the struc­tural supports. 24H Archi­tec­ture from the Nether­lands was respon­sible for the initial design, with the cons­truc­tion and subse­quent designs of several addi­tional buil­dings by Chiangmai Life Cons­truc­tion.

The brief: a smooth integration

The archi­tects brief was to build a sports hall that should be big enough to house the projected capa­city of 300 students, but still smoothly inte­grates with the previous earthen and bamboo buil­dings of the school as well as the natural hilly land­scape of the area. The hall should provide modern sports faci­li­ties and only use bamboo to main­tain the low carbon foot­print and the “Green School” mission of Panyaden.

Bamboo Sports Hal covers an area of 782 m², and hosts futsal, basket­ball, volley­ball and badminton courts, as well as a stage that can be lifted auto­ma­ti­cally. The back­drop of the stage is the front wall of a storage room for sports and drama equip­ment. On both long sides balco­nies provide space for both parents and other visi­tors to observe sporting events or shows.

The design and mate­rial of Bamboo Sports Hal enable a cool and plea­sant climate all year round through natural venti­la­tion and insu­la­tion. At the same time, the exposed bamboo struc­ture is a feast to the eye and an example of masterly handi­craft.

Carbon footprint: zero

Bamboo Sports Hall was desi­gned with the help of two inde­pen­dent engi­neers for modern safety stan­dards in cons­truc­tion to with­stand the local high-speed winds, earth­quakes and other natural forces.

The inno­va­tive struc­tural design is based on newly deve­loped prefa­bri­cated bamboo trusses with a span of over 17 meters without steel rein­force­ments or connec­tions. These trusses were prebuilt on site and lifted into posi­tion with the help of a crane.

Bamboo Sports Hal’s carbon foot­print is zero. The bamboo used absorbed carbon to a much higher extent than the carbon emitted during treat­ment, trans­port and cons­truc­tion.

The bamboo was all well selected for age and treated with borax salt. No toxic chemi­cals were involved in the treat­ment process. The life span of the bamboo hall is expected to be at least 50 years.