Why are so many things in The Fields built from bamboo?
Category
Our Ethos
Published
Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Last Updated
Monday, 7 July 2025
It would be easier to list all the structures in The Fields that don’t use bamboo than to list all the artworks, venues, utilities and more that have incorporated it over the years. You’ve probably wondered—what makes bamboo one of our favorite materials to work with?
Steel you can grow—and compost
For centuries, Asian cultures have made use of bamboo’s materiality, from Thai communities to regional indigenous groups. Bamboo appears in diverse forms of construction, from floating fishing villages to bridge-building to shishi-odoshi water fountains in Japan. The material is used as a tool for cooking, including as parcels for Thai sticky rice desserts. Bamboo creates instruments like the khaen—used in Molam and music from Isaan—and in traditional games using bamboo poles.
The ‘super grass’ isn’t just known for its fast growth. It’s also favored because it’s sturdy, more flexible than timber and has high tensile strength—meaning it bends without breaking easily, allowing for more forms of expressions. And with dozens of species of bamboo growing naturally in the tropics here in Thailand, we can pick and choose from different characteristics that are best suited for different applications.
In The Fields, bamboo’s versatility offers freedom in each design, bending into playful shapes that reflect each artist’s or designer’s imagination. When needed, bamboo structures can also be taken apart and the materials reused, so nothing is ever wasted.
Yet, we also recognize that there are limitations to building with an organic material, then leaving it exposed to the elements in The Fields. We constantly monitor bamboo features for wear and tear. At the end of its life, bamboo biodegrades and returns to the earth, allowing us to start over and reimagine our next designs.
Material that brings communities together
Though malleable, bamboo is a material that requires significant skill and mastery to bring designs to life. Each time we create new venues and artworks in The Fields, we bring together different communities of designers and craftspeople. Many of our structures over the years are the result of overlapping spheres of experience, culture and knowledge.
In its early stages, Theatre of Feasts (once called Feasting Hall) was brought to life through the combined efforts of Design Qua studio and Chiangmai Life Construction. Sheltered and embellished with bamboo, our home for dining experiences lived on our old site from 2014–2017. Once we moved to new land, Theatre of Eats was reimagined by Ab Rogers Design, continuing to incorporate bamboo in the embodiment of our culinary center stage.
In 2017, Leeroy New designed and hand-bent bamboo into the stretching tentacles of ‘Rhizome Colony’. Drawing from the material culture of his environment, the contemporary Filipino artist worked alongside local artisans to build out the biomorphic installation.
This year, we’re helping curate the curriculum for Thammasat University’s Bamboo Studio students with Giant Grass design studio in a masterclass that supports design and ecology. Under our joint supervision, students will source and build a bamboo structure that Wonderers can interact with in The Fields.
Shaping and nourishing The Fields
As Wonderers traverse The Fields, you’ll also find living bamboo groves scattered throughout—some growing wild in the jungle, some planted intentionally to protect Wonderers as a living fence.
This year, we’re planting more bamboo in the grassy knolls of Living Village to create pockets of calm, while influencing the contours of the land. A natural tool for landscaping, bamboo groves hold soil in their roots, both reshaping the earth and helping it maintain its structure.
Beyond natural landscaping, planting bamboo in The Fields allows us to deepen our commitment to circularity. Every part of the plant has use at every stage of its life, from growing our own materials to build future structures to digging roots and shoots for food. The aerated, nutrient-dense soil that gathers in the roots of bamboo groves have long been used in Thai agriculture and gardening.
A decade built from bamboo
Over the past decade, we’ve built dozens of pavilions and art installations out of the super grass.
Bamboo strips were woven to create the curves and folds of Theatre Stage by MPD Studio. One of the first venues constructed on our new land in Chonburi, the giant metal and bamboo structure has been repurposed several times—sometimes serving as a café, other times as a pavilion for live music. In its iterations through 2019–2023, Theatre Stage has been interlaced with materials like recycled fishing nets and natural rubber.
Bamboo also frames our recycling bins, while forming the structure of furniture and smaller decorations. It makes up the skeletons of installations, providing a frame for less rigid materials—including the rice straw used by PO-D Architects to build the ornate palace of Farm Stage in 2017. The Thai design firm also worked with Isaan folk craftsmen to build an interactive bamboo lookout tower, first called Dew Flower in 2018, then later Wind Flower.
Since 2014, the main structure of The Quarry has always been built from bamboo by various designers, including Thor Kaichon. Today, the wormhole rings that are suspended above The Quarry are made from bamboo. Also well-camouflaged in the forest are the bamboo tripods used for the complex rigging that transforms the forest at night through illusions created by light and lasers.
Designed by Ab Rogers Design in 2018, our playful network of floating pods, Bath House, was originally made of bamboo and reclaimed barrels. In following years, each iteration has included the material in its structural components, floors and shades.
However, bamboo has its own limitations, while we have a lot to learn about where and how best to use it. Over the past decade, we’ve evolved our approach to using the super grass based on experience and knowledge shared with us from skilled crafts workers. For some of our structures, we lessen the need for frequent rebuilds from deteriorating bamboo, setting down foundations of brick, steel or timber.
Explore more of the materials that have shaped places of discovery and play in The Fields in a Decade of Wonder.