image: Kent Harries and Luisa Molari in front of bamboo samples used in testing.
Credit: Thomas Altany
Although abundant, sustainable, and strong, bamboo as a construction material remains underused and in need of increased international standardization. Researchers Kent Harries at the University of Pittsburgh and Luisa Molari at the University of Bologna, in Italy, are helping to change that.
Through a Fulbright Visiting Scholar Award, Molari, an associate professor of structural mechanics, has been on the Pitt campus collaborating with Harries, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The researchers are sharing extensive experience and insight to advance and standardize a material that can help provide sustainable, affordable housing worldwide.
Shared interest in the potential of bamboo
“There are a billion people on the planet in informal housing, and as many as a quarter of a billion to a billion people who will likely be displaced due to rising sea levels in the next ten to fifty years,” said Harries.
“On island nations that can’t produce their own concrete, or in places like India, where deforestation has led to a ban on timber construction,” he added, “bamboo could be a potential homegrown opportunity to supplement the construction.”
Phyllostachys edulis (moso) and Guadua angustifolia, bamboo varieties with thicker culms (or stalks), are especially well suited for construction and indeed have been used as such for thousands of years.
“There’s a large fiber content at the outside of the skin, which is high in silica, making it robust and hard to cut through,” Harries said. “Nature got it right. You couldn’t do better.”
These strong bamboo varieties grow fast and can be harvested within three to five years. They also effectively sequester carbon dioxide, helping reduce greenhouse gasses.
“It’s very optimized,” said Molari of the plant she has been studying for the past seven years. She focuses on a different species of Phyllostachys, which grows in Italy and has a smaller diameter than its subtropical counterparts.
In addition to her many articles about the plant, including about its promise in Europe, Molari has helped write the Italian standards on bamboo.
Harries’ interest in bamboo dates to 2006, when he recruited Bhavna Sharma (CEE PhD ’10) to the Swanson School’s PhD program. Sharma, a professor at USC’s School of Architecture and a leader in engineered bamboo and seismic research, wanted to study the performance of bamboo structures in Northeast India.
In 2016, Harries received a $300,000 National Science Foundation grant to research bamboo’s potential as a building material in Puerto Rico. He has also written and helped revise the international standards for determining the physical and mechanical properties of bamboo culms.
Harries has made the case for bamboo right here in Pittsburgh and has written extensively about it, including the 2025 article “Adoption of full-culm bamboo as a structural material” (DOI: 10.1038/s44296-025-00050-2).
A transatlantic collaboration comes to Pittsburgh
Molari and Harries were invited to attend the July 2023 International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems, and Structures (RILEM) conference in Rio de Janeiro and began a collaboration that has crossed time zones and continents.
“We’re both structural engineers with a materials science focus, applying fundamental mechanics to a neat product,” Harries said. “We know it works, but we need to translate it to something the engineering community can hang its hat on.”
Together, they helped form a RILEM Technical Committee to improve bamboo characterization and to promote the common language for its research and standardization.
In December 2024, their paper “Mechanical characterisation of bamboo for construction: the state-of-practice and future prospects” (DOI: 10.21809/rilemtechlett.2023.188) was published in RILEM Technical Letters. They assess the current state of bamboo standardization and methods for testing it. They also chart the RILEM Technical Committee’s path forward.
The energy around their collaborative work and shared interests inspired Molari to reach out to Harries and then apply for the Fulbright Visiting Scholar. The award, which recognizes the unique power of collaboration across cultures, was founded in 1946 by the U.S. Congress in the aftermath of World War II.
Molari received the Fulbright and at the end of May, with her family, flew to Pittsburgh, where they are staying with a host family through September. While her children use Snapchat to organize soccer matches with kids in the neighborhood, Molari collaborates with Harries.
“We’re modeling the behavior of beams made from multiple bamboo culms,” said Molari. “In Italy, with the thinner bamboo, we need to bundle culms to make them stronger. It’s important to show what’s possible.”
In addition to modeling the full-culm bamboo, Harries and Molari are developing a RILEM report and working to improve test methods, an effort that will, as Harries noted, “impact the next version of the ISO [International Organization for Standardization] standards. There is real impact in collaborations like this one.”
Harries added, “By appreciating the engineering cultures in different countries, learning about the different codes… and engaging across academic cultures, we can see our work more clearly.”
Beyond modeling and writing about bamboo, Harries and Molari are building more connections. They are collaborating with Virginia Technical University on a project that could lead to research opportunities for students in Ecuador.
With Molari’s family, the two researchers traveled to Blacksburg to visit the Virginia Tech campus and meet with colleagues who share their interest in bamboo. “To kick off projects and establish relationships,” said Harries, “in a post-Covid world, nothing beats personal interaction”
“When you can meet someone in person, it changes how you approach your research,” Molari said. “It makes things easier.”