Star Bamboo Singapore

Hi all,

2010 is closing with a bang, the construction market is positively booming right now. We have been busy running concurrent projects, sorry we have been rather quiet here.

We have just uploaded more photos of a newly completed project onto our Facebook page. Something different from our usual bamboo flooring, hope you like what we’ve done – the owner certainly did!

This is just a small part of what we have done. Go check the rest out now!

p.s. Have you “liked” us on Facebook yet?

A Sentosa Cove project we completed last April was featured in the The New York Times recently. I recognised the photos immediately from the Today article which syndicated the NY Times piece.

This project was particularly technically challenging. The architect was Guz Wilkinson, who had a strong vision of the design and it was up to us to execute it.

(NYTCREDIT: Kevin Miller for The New York Times)

The two flights of staircases were custom constructed from bamboo. We fabricated the steps at a specialist workshop, using the same bamboo material as our bamboo flooring. An added difficulty was ensuring that the steps look good from all sides (There was some design touches at the bottom, which can’t be seen from these photos).

The side barricade was clear transparent glass, creating a clever illusion of floating bamboo steps. The bamboo pieces were wrapped around internal metal steps that provided the necessary structural strength. Lastly, we finished by sanding and varnishing the bamboo steps.

Here’s another view of the house:

(NYTCREDIT: Kevin Miller for The New York Times)

You can see the staircases and bridge walkway on the left.

We also installed bamboo flooring over both the top and bottom of the bridge walkway. We did site-sanding and coating for the top surface. The bottom surface had to be installed with pre-finished bamboo flooring as there was no way of sanding it.

I had my concerns about this bridge as it was partially exposed to the elements, only protected by a half-height glass barricade. But the bamboo flooring has held up surprisingly well over the past 1.5 years, even though the house was just a stone’s throw from the ocean.

We also installed bamboo flooring for couple of bedrooms on the ground floor. That is about as eco-friendly a flooring as one could get. The rest of the rooms were simply bare limestone and epoxy-covered concrete.

All in all, a highly satisfying project.

Next Monday (9 Aug) is Singapore’s 45th anniversary of independence.

So here’s wishing Singapore a wonderful birthday as our nation marches toward middle age.

Our office will be closed from Friday (6 Aug) till Monday (9 Aug), and reopen on Tuesday (10 Aug). You can still contact us via email: info [at] starbamboo [dot] com.

Happy birthday, Singapore!

A recent article in the Business Times (reproduced here) reported that :

“If buildings meet certain Green Mark standards, owners can apply for additional Gross Floor Area (GFA) beyond the master plan gross plot ratio control.

Developments with the Platinum rating can receive up to 2 per cent more GFA (capped at 5,000 sq m), while those with the Gold Plus rating are eligible for up to one per cent more (capped at 2,500 sq m).”

In land-scarce Singapore, this is a powerful incentive. At current record land prices,  an extra 5,000 sqm is easily worth millions of dollars to the developer, even though a development charge has to be paid to the government.

There are currently 4 levels of Green Mark ratings:

There is now greater impetus to strive for the next Green Mark level, especially for buildings at the Green Mark Gold Plus level. Only 5 points separate this from the highest Green Mark Platinum level, making it an attainable goal.

With the 2008 revision of the Green Mark programme, developers can score points by using Green Label certified products such as our bamboo flooring. Under this category, there is a total of 1.5 points available. Any extra building costs is more than offset by the extra GFA available.

When a mere 5 points could equate to a difference of millions of dollars, every little bit helps.

We first participated in the first edition of Eco Action Day back in 2007. Time sure flies, before you know it, it’s already 2010.

This year’s Eco Action Day will be held on 4th June.

There is a handy table on their website, which shows the total amount of electricity saved for the past three years. Unfortunately there is a slight dip in 2009, but I’m sure we will be able to reverse the trend this year.

Awareness about our impact on the environment has become mainstream, and it’s no longer a fad.

So go get your colleagues to join in, and together, we can make a difference.

Check out the Eco Action Day website today!

Our web site is undergoing some changes as I type this.

I’ve been making some tweaks to our web site:

* Most importantly, visitors to www.starbamboo.com now see a static welcome page instead of the blog. The blog is accessible via a link to your right.

* The pages now have a better flow – visitors get guided along, instead of having to figure for themselves where to click next.

* Some pages have been removed – they provide valuable content, but more often than not, simply confuse a new visitor.

* You want to see how bamboo flooring looks like in a real-world setting? Your wish is granted! We are adding photos to our project portfolio page.

There is one more big surprise to be unveiled soon.. Check back here for more details!

Great news for those who’ve been waiting to buy our eco-friendly bamboo chopping boards, but couldn’t make the trip down to Sago Street in Chinatown:

You can now buy them online!

CHOOSE. by Olive Ventures now has its very own online store.

The layout seems pretty slick and there is a nice variety of eco-friendly products available sorted according to product category or brand name.

I couldn’t find information on delivery costs, but James mentioned that there will be a charged imposed as most of their products are pretty heavy.

Also, when I clicked on the “checkout” button, a message popped out saying the minimum order value is $30.

Which is OK because a full set of our bamboo chopping boards costs a very reasonable $50.

What’s more, you could win a prize just by joining their Twitter or Facebook pages before 31/05/2010.

So go check it out today!

The Singapore government has just announced a new $15m green building fund to encourage use of recycled building materials.

It doesn’t sound like much, but the use of this fund is very specific:

“The fund will focus on developing capabilities in recycling waste from the demolition of buildings and in using recycled materials for construction.” 

Money certainly speaks louder than words, a sentiment echoed by Andrew Khng, president, Singapore Contractors Association, who said: “… for the contractors, we need some kind of incentive to push us to go green on our own.” - ChanneNewsAsia

A nice tweak to BCA’s Green Mark scheme is mentioned in the Straits Times report:

“Currently, those aiming for the ‘Goldplus’ and ‘Platinum’ standards under its Green Mark scheme can opt out of these measures by beefing up other areas such as greenery and accessibility to public transport. But the changes make mandatory a prescribed minimum level of effort in this regard.”

Lastly, the AsiaOne web site’s motoring section focused on the successful trial which used recycled asphalt-pavement waste in road construction.

Which made me wonder why we took so long in the first place, especially since road works in Singapore are going on all the time.

This is a step in the right direction, let’s hope for more government support in the coming months.

Last October, I adopted 8 sqm of forest land in Indonesia at the Qi Global Conference in Singapore.

A few days ago, the certificate finally arrived:

(click above for full size image)

The coolest thing is that I know the exact geo co-ordinates of the piece of land I adopted. I could even view it in Google Earth and monitor its progress over time.

Adopting a piece of land is kind of like adopting a child for schools in remote villages. The financial contribution is one thing, I also feel a stronger sense of ownership.

This piece of forest land is under my care, and at the same time, belongs to us all.

Reforestation is a painstakingly long-term effort. Primary rainforests, once lost, could never be reclaimed fully. We can only hope for a rough approximation of the beauty that used to exist.

Prevention is better than cure. Instead of using wooden products, why not consider other eco-friendly alternatives such as bamboo?

This is the only truly sustainable way for our future.

Apple’s latest creation is the iPad. Jokes about female hygiene products aside, I’m really pleased to note that they have put in effort to make a eco-friendly product.

(Source: CNET News)

Looks like it’s a matter of time before they change the colour of their logo to green.