Folding Bamboo Houses

Ming Tang

Ming Tang came up with the idea for his Folding Houses after a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck central China last May, killing 69,000 people. Upon learning that the Chinese government planned to create up to 1.5 million temporary homes, he decided to design a shelter that was easily produced, cheap and environmentally friendly. His geometric folding houses are beautiful, dynamic, and can adapt to respond to the needs of different situations.

The concept utilizes a system of bamboo poles that are pre-assembled into rigid geometric shapes. The geometry of these forms provides each structure’s integrity, allowing a range of lightweight modular structures to be quickly assembled in factories and transported to their destination. Once constructed, the shelters are then covered by using post and pre-consumer recycled paper.

If only here in Italy we used the bamboo...